Howdy, everyone! Welcome to PtvSports’s coverage of Pakistan vs India, At New York ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2024 PAK vs IND Live @ Ptv Sports. The sun is shining and it’s a beautiful morning in Dallas.
Pakistan will be forced into a late call over the inclusion of Imad Wasim ahead of Sunday’s group game against India. Ten days after the PCB said Imad missed the final game of the T20I series against England for “precautionary reasons” after a suspected rib injury, the allrounder remains a significant doubt for this game.
Team news
Pakistan: 1 Mohammad Rizwan 2 Babar Azam 3 Usman Khan 4 Fakhar Zaman 5 Azam Khan 6 Iftikhar Ahmed 7 Shadab Khan 7 8 Shaheen Afridi 9 Haris Rauf 10 Mohammad Amir 11 Abrar Ahmed
India (probable): 1 Rohit Sharma (capt), 2 Virat Kohli, 3 Suryakumar Yadav, 4 Shivam Dube, 5 Rishabh Pant (wk), 6 Hardik Pandya, 7 Ravindra Jadeja, 8 Kuldeep Yadav, 9 Arshdeep Singh, 10 Jasprit Bumrah, 11 Mohammed Siraj
In the days since, it has become clear Imad’s injury is more serious than was initially made public. He missed Pakistan’s first game of the T20 World Cup against USA, which Pakistan lost in the Super Over, with the same complaint. And while the PCB did release footage of him bowling in the nets, ESPNcricinfo understands Pakistan will make a final decision on the day of the game after assessing his fitness.
Imad’s potential unavailability for the game is a problem Pakistan could do without. In his absence, they have struggled to balance the side. They decided to go into the game against USA with an out-of-form Azam Khan and Shadab Khan as the only specialist spinner, despite lingering concerns about his ability with the ball.
Is the scheduling an issue?
Yes. Eight of the 16 World Cup matches of the USA leg of the T20 World Cup were allotted to New York, and these have been scheduled across ten days between June 3 and 12, with the last six matches – including the marquee game between India and Pakistan on June 9 – on consecutive days. Such a schedule is unprecedented at an ICC event. This has been the biggest challenge for Hough and his team, because it is not just one pitch, but the entire square comprising all four strips that need attention at all times.
USA go into this game high on confidence, having shown heart against Canada and recently upsetting Bangladesh. Pakistan could hardly say the same.
A middling finish for Pakistan. They would have struggled if not for a couple of Shaheen sixes in the last two overs.
It’s one of those totals that will encourage both teams. USA know they are not out of this, having chased 195 a few nights ago at this stadium. But Pakistan know they have an outstanding pace attack, and now they have a decent total on the board, will back themselves to defend it.
Azam was dismissed for a golden duck, while Shadab came in for pointed criticism by his captain Babar Azam, when he said following the loss that Pakistan’s “spinners” (Iftikhar Ahmed, the part-timer, was the other option and bowled just one over) struggled to pick up wickets.
While this specific niggle – the PCB officially called it “discomfort in his right rib cage’ – has not been an issue for Imad in the past, he has struggled with a range of injuries. He has nursed a knee injury for much of his career which inhibited his ability to play the longer formats.
Ahead of the 2019 World Cup, he was given extra time to pass a fitness test due to his chronic knee injury, and he initially retired from the international game in 2023.
On his return earlier this year, he made it clear he was not signing a central contract, and had only returned for this particular World Cup. However, now that Pakistan already seem to be flirting with an early exit, it remains unclear how much Imad will actually be able to participate in his international swansong.
Plan was to have a big partnership among top three and then to take it deep. Gous played cricketing shots and took pressure away. As a player and captain, you want to show off your talent on the big occasion. Wanted to score in a winning cause.
Monank Patel: It’s a big achievement – beating Pakistan while playing for the first time. Complete performance. We used the conditions well. Kept them to 160, which was chaseable. Happy with my contribution, happier to have won.
Babar Azam: First six overs while batting, we couldn’t capitalise. We took momentum but back-to-back wickets hurt us. (Bowling) We were not up to the mark in the first six. Didn’t take wickets, spinners didn’t either. We came back in the end but couldn’t finish well. Hope to do well in the future. (Result makes it) Very hard, all credit to USA who did well in all three departments. That’s why they won. There was moisture in the pitch. It was two-paced. As professionals, we had to assess conditions better.
Monank Patel, POTM: Winning the toss, way we bowled in first six was where we won. We took wickets, did well till the 12th over. Shadab, Babar took chances, we knew they will. We knew it was a chaseable score and needed a good partnership from top-three. We got the game in our hand as me and Gous played till the 12th over. Playing in the WC, you don’t get a chance to do it every year. Knew we had to be fully committed every single ball against Pakistan. It was a complete effort from the team.
“USA have made history with unadulterated skill and gumption. This win could define not just their progress in this World Cup but also their cricketing history. It might take a while for what happened to sink in, but the experience itself was one that makes a mortal human grateful for being sentient. Hopefully, this is just the start and we can witness and go through many more such moments together. Thank you for joining in tonight. It was a pleasure.
Was this a good innings?
Generally striking at around a 100 and using up 43 balls as an opener would constitute a poor innings. But these pitches in the USA have not been super conducive to run-scoring, and Pakistan were losing wickets at the other end anyway.
We’ll have better evidence to judge Babar’s innings after Pakistan have bowled on this surface. But with him out now, the death overs are down largely to Iftikhar. USA will back themselves to finish strong.
Babar finally catches up
Babar Azam had a very slow start to the innings, as wickets fell around him•AFP/Getty Images
Firs ball of the sixteenth over, Babar slams a six over deep point off Jasdeep Singh, and for the first time in a difficult innings, gets his strike rate over 100.
Partly his going slow was down to Pakistan losing early wickets, and needing to rebuild. But on the flipside, you might argue that his teammates would not have had to take so many risks if Babar had been striking quickly from early in the innings.
Kenjige and Netravalkar show
Nosthush Kenjige (pictured) and Saurabh Netravalkar shared five wickets between them•ICC/Getty Images
If USA can feel happy at the halfway mark, it’s largely down to their left-arm bowlers, who opened the innings Nosthush Kenjige didn’t play in the match against Canada, but made a huge impact here, taking the early wicket of Usman Khan, before breaking the big Shadab-Babar stand by having Shadab caught at short fine leg. Him nailing Azam Khan in front gave him his third wicket, and Kenjige finished with 3 for 30.
Netravalkar was incredibly disciplined from start to finish, making the initial breakthrough by getting Mohammad Rizwan caught nicely at slip, before later getting Iftikhar Ahmed lbw with a low full toss in his last over. Netravalkar’s figures were 2 for 18.
Team news
Imad has been unable to shake off a side strain that kept him out of Pakistan’s final T20I against England last week, meaning balancing the side is a problem for Pakistan. It likely means Shadab will keep his place for all-round potential, while Babar and Rizwan go back up top.
Pakistan: 1 Mohammad Rizwan 2 Babar Azam 3 Usman Khan 4 Fakhar Zaman 5 Azam Khan 6 Iftikhar Ahmed 7 Shadab Khan 7 8 Shaheen Afridi 9 Haris Rauf 10 Mohammad Amir 11 Abrar Ahmed
USA have no injury concerns following their win over Canada, and with the hosts playing at the same venue again, they are unlikely to tinker with a winning combination.
USA: 1 Steven Taylor, 2 Monank Patel (capt), 3 Andries Gous (wk), 4 Aaron Jones, 5 Nitish Kumar, 6 Corey Anderson, 7 Harmeet Singh, 8 Shadley van Schalkwyk, 9 Jasdeep Singh, 10 Ali Khan, 11 Saurabh Netravalkar
Pitch and conditions
Rain sprayed Dallas in the week leading up to the tournament, but has for the large part stayed away since the World Cup began. That should continue to be the case on Thursday, with a full game expected.
The wicket offered early seam movement in each of the first two games with decent bounce and carry, with the opening game – held at this venue – throwing up the two highest scores of the tournament so far.
Stats and trivia
- Pakistan’s attempt to break up Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan failed on just about every count. Saim Ayub scored 229 runs in 15 T20I innings as opener, at an average of 15.26 and a strike rate of 126.51. That average as well as strike rate is lower than either Babar or Rizwan’s as opener since January 2022
- Haris Rauf is five wickets away from becoming just the second Pakistani – after Shadab Khan – to reach 100 T20I wickets
- Of the 23 sixes Aaron Jones has struck in 25 T20I innings, 10 came in his innings against Canada in the World Cup opener
Quotes
“Certain things are outside your control. We can’t control the weather. In the circumstances, we used the facilities available to us, with the batters and bowlers training indoors. Our team drills also took place indoors, so we’re just trying to utilise the best possible options we have.”
Pakistan captain Babar Azam on making do while the Dallas weather refused to play ball