Virat Kohli loves Pakistan
Kohli has never got out in the three T20 World Cup matches against Pakistan.
In those three matches, his scores have been: 78*, 36* & 55*
India’s unbeaten record
India have a 100% win record over their arch-rivals in the World Cups. In total, India have won all 12 matches against Pakistan in ODI and T20 World Cups. In T20 World Cups, the record for India stand at 5 wins from 5.
Nasser Hussain feels lack of Plan B can hurt India
“Their record of late in the ICC tournaments is not good and that’s something they are going to have to deal with with the weight of expectations of the Indian audience and fans heavy on their shoulders when they get to a knockout game, all of a sudden you cannot afford a mistake and that’s going to be a thing for them.”
“When they get to a stage you look at the last World Cup against New Zealand and suddenly it’s a low-scoring game and they don’t have a Plan B. They got rolled over a very good New Zealand side. So that’s going to be an issue for them,” Hussain said.
Pakistan 12-man squad
Pakistan has already announced a 12-man squad for the India match: Babar Azam(c), Mohammad Rizwan(w), Fakhar Zaman, Mohammad Hafeez, Shoaib Malik, Asif Ali, Imad Wasim, Shadab Khan, Hasan Ali, Haris Rauf, Shaheen Afridi, Haider Ali
Probable XI
There are reports that Suryakumar could bowl off-spin for India today, so he gets into our playing XI.
India: KL Rahul, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli (c), Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant (wk), Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Varun Chakravarthy, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami
Pakistan: Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Babar Azam (c) Fakhar Zaman, Haider Ali, Mohammad Hafeez, Asif Ali, Shadab Khan, Hasan Ali, Imad Wasim, Haris Rauf, Shaheen Afridi
An India-Pakistan meeting in a World Cup is always an occasion to look forward to, and the five contests between the two across the six T20 World Cups before the 2021 edition have produced plenty of thrill and entertainment.
We take a quick look at the past encounters between the two arch-rivals in the biggest event in cricket’s shortest format.
Read: From the bowl-out to winning inaugural title, looking back at India-Pakistan clashes in tournament
Just another game of cricket
India captain Virat Kohli, in his final assignment as T20I captain, has played down the hype surrounding the highly-anticipated clash against Pakistan by saying that it’s just another game of cricket for the players involved from either side, even if some outside the dressing room liken it to a war and news anchor waged pitched battles in their studious with their counterparts from the other side of the border.
Read: ‘Another game of cricket’, Virat Kohli plays down hype of India-Pakistan encounter
Atul Wassan has predicted another Indian victory today that will stretch their World Cup record against Pakistan to 13-0. The former India cricketer, however, says his claim does not come from jingoism, but is based on facts and recent record.
Writing for Firstpost, the cricketer-turned-commentator further explains his stance. Read it here
“Players have always looked at India-Pakistan matches differently than fans but both sides are well aware that a defeat in the first match of the tournament against their arch-rivals could make a massive dent in their psychology and campaign”
Ujwal Singh previews the high-voltage contest between India and Pakistan. Read it here
Hello and welcome to our live coverage of the eagerly-awaited weekend blockbuster that is India vs Pakistan. The two South Asian neighbours lock horns in what is one of the most eagerly anticipated clashes of the T20 World Cup, the excitement of which can be gauged from the fact that tickets for the game were sold out within hours after they were made available. The two sides haven’t faced each other since the 2019 ICC ODI World Cup in Manchester, which the Men in Blue won by 89 runs. The last time these two sides faced each other in the UAE was in the 2018 Asia Cup, in which India won both contests against their arch-rivals.