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 spotlight
Babar Azam had a shocker against USA: 4 off 14 balls in the powerplay, 24 balls before his first boundary, and dismissed for 44 off 43 just when Pakistan desperately needed him to continue the momentum he had only recently wrested. He was also unable to galvanise his team in the field, and they stumbled from blunder to blunder to an embarrassing defeat. Having stepped down as captain in November, only to be reinstated in March, Babar’s leadership could come under severe scrutiny if Sunday doesn’t go Pakistan’s way.
India picked Shivam Dube in the XI primarily as a left-hand disruptor of spin in the middle overs. He isn’t likely to face much of that against Pakistan though. Dube wasn’t a particularly good player of fast bowling but he’s worked on that weakness with the Chennai Super Kings and averaged 44 with a strike rate of 164 against pace in IPL 2024. If he passes the test against Afridi, Naseem, Rauf and Amir, he will put that debate to rest.
Virat Kohli has been consistent in his last four T20Is against Pakistan, while for Babar Azam it’s been all or nothing in their last two meetings in the shortest format•AFP/Getty Images
Stats and trivia
- In the first four T20 World Cup matches played in New York, fast bowlers have taken 45 wickets and spinners only 10. Teams have bowled 115.2 overs of pace, and only 27.2 overs of spin at this venue.
Babar scored a match-winning 68 off 52 balls against India in Dubai in the 2021 T20 World Cup, and was dismissed for a golden duck by Arshdeep Singh in Melbourne in 2022. He’s not been dismissed by Bumrah (13 off 10 balls) or Jadeja (19 off 14 balls) and has not yet faced Siraj or Hardik in T20Is.Kohli has faced a total of 113 balls in T20Is from Naseem, Amir, Rauf and Shadab and never been dismissed. He’s fallen once in 22 deliveries to Afridi but also has a strike rate of 154 against him. Kohli’s last four T20I scores against Pakistan, since 2021, are 82*, 60, 35 and 57.
Quotes
“This is the uniqueness of T20 cricket. Anything can happen anywhere. In the last World Cup, Pakistan lost to Zimbabwe. But eventually they played the final.”
Rohit Sharma on whether India are wary of a mercurial Pakistan comeback.
“It’s a big game India- Pakistan, there’s no need for me to motivate the team anymore. They are well-motivated, they are focused for this game. We have to forget about the last couple of days and just move forward, that’s the only way you can deal with life.”
Head coach Gary Kirsten is on the Pakistan side of this rivalry for the first time.