CWC2023 : India v Pakistan preview - Can India extend the head to head scoreline to 8-0 ?

 



The stage is set at the 1.32 lac capacity Ahmedabad stadium for the highly anticipated clash between the Asian giants India and Pakistan . Both teams have recently faced each other twice in the Asia cup in which one was a no result and the other match was won comfortably by India . However the world cup clash has a different  importance.  India however has dominated Pakistan in ODI world cups  having won all their previous 7  clashes with Pakistan since its inception .


Team wise analysis 


India 


India has looked a well oiled team so far in this world cup . They did have their hiccups vs Australia  early in their batting innings but finally won by 6 wickets and against Afghanistan they simply cruised through . All their 3 senior batters Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli &  KL Rahul are in good form and amongst the runs . Shubman Gill seems to have recovered from dengue and has also batted for sometime at the nets . Gill looks fit but it remains to be seen whether India fields him rightaway in this match of high stakes . The Indian bowling has looked in good shape in both games  but Siraj had an off day vs Afghanistan.  The spinners are bowling well and Indian bowling so far has looked the best in this world cup . It remains to be seen whether India brings back Ashwin at Ahmedabad or plays the extra  fast bowler at Ahmedabad which is expected to be a batting paradise . Only area of slight worry for India is their lower order batting and their specialist fast bowlers have little batting skills .


Pakistan:


Pakistan's breathtaking run chase vs Sri Lanka  should give this team lots of hope & confidence before the  India game . Abdullah Shafique must have resolved Pakistan's opening issues with a wonderful century and Rizwan's spellbinding 100 despite his cramps was such a brave effort that it can  galvanize any team . Babar Azam so far short of runs is also due for a big score while Pakistan has found lots of promise in talented lefty  Saud Shakeel . All in all the Pakistan batting is looking good with some decent depth .


However the Pakistan bowling has looked very flat so far . Shaheen Afridi has not really fired so  far while Haris Rauf is leaking runs against top batters . The 3rd pacer has not had much of an impact while the spinners have been struggling . Thus Pakistan bowlers will have a lot of challenges against a strong looking Indian batting line up .


On the whole India look firm favourites to win this duel and it will be a mini upset if Pakistan wins . Hence Pakistan will have to play out of their skins to beat India for the first time in an ODI world cup . 



There are some promising duels lined up for this match  :


Shaheen Afridi vs Rohit Sharma & Virat Kohli 


Jasprit Bumrah & Kuldeep Yadav vs Babar Azam 



Probable XIs 


Probable India XI: Rohit Sharma (c), Ishan Kishan/ Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul (wk), Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur/ Md Shami , Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj


Probable Pakistan XI: Abdullah Shafique, Imam-ul-Haq, Babar Azam (c), Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Saud Shakeel, Iftikhar Ahmed, Shadab Khan, Mohammad Nawaz, Hasan Ali, Shaheen Afridi, Haris Rauf 

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