The current political tension between India and Pakistan means that these two cricket crazy nations only play each other in World Cups and other multi-team tournaments nowadays. For example, the last T20 International between these two teams was the one played at the Eden Gardens during the 2016 World T20. Since then, the teams have met only 5 times in ODIs with India winning 4. With both teams including some world’s most talented players there will be few interesting individual battles during the match.
Shaheen Shah Afridi vs Rohit Sharma
In recent months, Shaheen Afridi has become one of the best fast bowlers from the current generation of Pakistani pacers. Utilizing his swing, pace and accuracy, Afridi has become a menace for the opposition batters. He has 55 international wickets this year. In T20, he has knack of taking wickets in the first over of the match as his angles and deadly yorkers are difficult to play if the batter is not set.
On Sunday, he will face Rohit Sharma, one of the leading batters in this format. Rohit has vast experience in this format, making his debut during the 2007 T20 World Cup and now has four hundred in this format as opener. Rohit even scored a hundred in the last meeting between these two teams during the 2019 World Cup and containing him will be a challenge for Shaheen. They have faced each other only once during 2018 Asia Cup when Rohit scored a century and Shaheen conceded 42 runs but he is a much improved bowler now.
Hasan Ali vs Virat Kohli
Hasan Ali did not play any T20 International against India but was part of the last 5 ODIs between these two teams. His best performance came in the 2017 Champions Trophy final when he picked up three wickets for just 19 runs. In the 2019 World Cup match he conceded 84 runs while picking up the wicket of Rohit Sharma. He will be hopeful for a better performance in today’s match and look to control the middle overs.
He will mostly face Virat Kohli, one of the greats of the game who has a T20I average of 84 against Pakistan and yet to be dismissed against Pakistan in World T20 matches. Kohli is not in the best of touches but if he can find form that will not be good news for Pakistan. And,Ali will focus to ensure an early departure for Kohli.
Jasprit Bumrah vs Fakhar Zaman
In the 2017 Champions Trophy final, Jasprit Bumrah dismissed Fakhar Zaman for 3 but it was found to be a No-ball and Fakhar survived to score a match-winning hundred for Pakistan. Even in Fakhar’s own admission, that innings was the turning point for his career as he went on to establish himself and currently holds the record for highest individual ODI score for Pakistan.
They have met three times since then, but Bumrah has yet to dismiss Fakhar in international stage. Bumrah himself is one of most impactful bowlers in the shortest format and has great record for India and Mumbai Indians in the IPL. But dismissing Fakhar in such an intense match once may help him fulfil some unfinished business from his side.
Varun Chakravarthy vs Babar Azam
In recent form, Babar Azam is one of the most dangerous T20 batters on his day. He has an average of 46.89 and strike rate above 130 in T20 Internationals and proved his value for Pakistan many times. Although he is yet to play a T20I against India, he was part of the last five ODIs against the arch-rivals, and scored 158 runs with highest score of 48. Sunday’s match will be a great opportunity for him to score his first fifty against India.
Interestingly, in three out of those five instances Babar was dismissed by spinner with Kuldeep Yadav (twice) and Kedar Jadav being the bowlers. None of them will be there on Sunday but India will have their new mystery spinner in Varun Chakravarthy to battle it out with Babar in the middle overs. Chakravarthy has played only three T20I picking up 2 wickets but has the experience of 34 IPL matches where he has picked up 38 wickets with an average of 23.68 and strike rate of 6.69 bowling against some of the best players in this format.
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