Match Details
india vs pakistan
New York, 10.30 am local time
The big picture: Do or die situation for Pakistan
So, here we are again. India look stable. Pakistan not so stable. This is often the case before the most anticipated match of the World Cup.
Form Guide
India WWWWW (last five completed matches, most recent first)
Pakistan LLLWW
Pitch and conditions: What kind of pitch will it be and how will it play?
One consequence of building an international cricket stadium on park land in record time has been the poor quality of the drop-in pitches, which were prepared in Florida and transported to New York.
South Africa bowled out Sri Lanka for 77 on pitch number 1 and chased down the target with some difficulty. India bowled out Ireland for 96 on pitch number 4 two days later. In that match, Harry Tector, Rohit Sharma and Rishabh Pant suffered body blows, with unpredictable bounce, exaggerated seam movement and a slow outfield making run-scoring extremely difficult. After widespread criticism, the ICC acknowledged the problem and said it was trying to find a solution.
On Friday, Canada became the first team to score more than 100 runs in New York and defended their score of 137 against Ireland by 12 runs on pitch number 4. On Saturday, South Africa played the Netherlands on a new surface – pitch number 2. The Netherlands made only 103 for 9 but South Africa made 12 for 4 and eventually won by four wickets. However, David Miller said that pitch number 2 played better than pitch number 1. So India and Pakistan are likely to play on pitch number 4 or 2.
The matches in New York have been dominated by fast bowlers so far. With Shaheen Afridi, Naseem Shah, Mohammad Aamir and Haris Rauf for Pakistan and Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammad Siraj, Arshdeep Singh and Hardik Pandya for India, the batsmen of the two teams could compete, provided the conditions do not change dramatically.
The weather in New York was pleasant on the eve of the match, but some weather websites have predicted rain on Sunday morning.
Team News
India will likely field the same team that defeated Ireland by eight wickets with 46 balls remaining.
India (Probable): 1 Rohit Sharma (captain), 2 Virat Kohli, 3 Rishabh Pant (wicketkeeper), 4 Suryakumar Yadav, 5 Shivam Dube, 6 Hardik Pandya, 7 Ravindra Jadeja, 8 Axar Patel, 9 Jasprit Bumrah, 10 Arshdeep Singh, 11 Mohammed Siraj
Imad Wasim missed Pakistan’s match against the USA due to a rib injury, but head coach Gary Kirsten said he is fit and will play against India. Azam Khan, who made a golden duck in Dallas, could be dropped from the team.
Pakistan (Probable): 1 Mohammad Rizwan (wk), 2 Babar Azam (c), 3 Usman Khan, 4 Fakhar Zaman, 5 Shadab Khan, 6 Iftikhar Ahmed, 7 Imad Wasim, 8 Shaheen Shah Afridi, 9 Naseem Shah, 10 Mohammad Amir, 11 Haris Rauf
in the headlines
Babar Azam Against the USA, Babar put in a shocking performance: 4 off 14 balls in the powerplay, 24 balls before his first boundary, and was dismissed for 44 off 43 balls, just when Pakistan needed him to continue the momentum they had recently gained. He was unable to motivate his team in the field either, and they made one mistake after another and suffered an embarrassing defeat. Having stepped down as captain in November, Babar was reinstated in March, and if things don’t go Pakistan’s way on Sunday, Babar’s captaincy could come under intense scrutiny.
India chose shivam dubey Included in the XI primarily as a left-arm disruption of spin in the middle overs. He won’t face much of it against Pakistan though. Dube wasn’t a particularly good player of fast bowling, but he has worked on this weakness with Chennai Super Kings and has scored against fast bowlers at an average of 44 and a strike rate of 164 in IPL 2024. If he passes the test against Afridi, Naseem, Rauf and Aamir, he will put an end to this debate.
Stats and Trivia
- In the first four T20 World Cup matches played in New York, fast bowlers have taken 45 wickets and spinners have taken only 10. Teams have bowled 115.2 overs of fast and only 27.2 overs of spin on this ground.
Citation
“This is the specialty 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 is concerned about Pakistan’s unstable return.
George Binoy is a deputy editor at ESPNcricinfo
