Virat Kohli is such a big-match player, be it against Pakistan, Australia, or England, you have to back him. He knows how to construct his innings in a high-pressure encounter. Be it while setting a target or chasing. Babar Azam is a marvelous player. Though he hasn’t scored big runs in the first two encounters, Pakistan would be hoping that the captain comes good in the big encounter against India.
India start as favourites in a big way. Pakistan’s strength lies in their pace bowling attack. They have Shaheen Afridi but they are missing Naseem Shah big time. Shaheen, since his injury in the Asia Cup, he hasn’t looked at his best so far. I look at Pakistan’s bowling resources, which are kind of depleted.
I feel that the Indian side has a better, stronger batting strength. They are the favourites to win this match.
They are very organised, Abdullah Shafique got a hundred in a high-pressure game when they were struggling. They were struggling at 2 down, with hardly anything on the board. For him to stitch a partnership with Mohammad Rizwan, showed that he had the right kind of temperament, the skillset required to do well in these situations. But, this is a different ball game altogether.
India has a far superior, much-better-balanced bowling attack. We have attacking pace bowlers, who can pick up wickets. On top of that, the middle-overs are going to be very crucial. You have Ravindra Jadeja and Kuldeep Yadav and if R Ashwin is against Pakistan, he’ll be quite handy.
Shafique, although he got a hundred against Sri Lanka, it might not be so easy for him against India. He looks to be a composed player but I think the pressure and a superior bowling attack just may be just too good for him.
Weak link in Pakistan: Pakistan would look to pick up some early wickets. India, at times, have struggled against top-quality bowling attacks with the new ball like Pakistan, be it in the T20 game or ODI encounters. So, I think Pakistan would look to exploit that kind of weakness. They know very well that India have some very strong batting performers. I think, for Pakistan, to remain in the hunt and in the competition, it’s very important to take early wickets. For India, who have a superior batting attack, they will look for their bowlers to do well against Pakistan batters. If all three spinners play, they would want to expose Pakistan’s batting which relies solely on Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan. If they pick up some early wickets, especially of these two batters, I think Pakistan will find themselves in a lot of trouble.
(Saba Karim is a former Indian cricket team wicketkeeper and also an ex-BCCI selector.)
Disclaimer: These are the personal opinions of the author.