Dhaka – The much-awaited clash of the ongoing ICC Cricket World Cup between two former champions and traditional rivals — India and Pakistan — is set to take place on Sunday at Old Trafford in Manchester.
Before heading to the match, India remained unbeaten in the 10-nation fray after winning two of their first three games with the other match against New Zealand being washed out due to rain in Trent Bridge on Thursday.
On the other hand, Pakistan lost two of their first four games. They beat hosts England by 14 runs and the other match against Sri Lanka was washed out.
Pakistan have so far played six matches against their archrivals India in the World Cups, but failed to register any win. So, this time, they are keen to end their winning drought in the World Cup.
They faced each other in a World Cup in England at the same venue back in 1999 where India came up victorious by 47 runs.
However, Pakistan can find the confidence to overshadow India in the World Cup from their win in the final of the last ICC Champions Trophy in England when Fakhar Zaman hit a ton to win the title for Pakistan.
India are a strong side for Pakistan in the World Cups while Pakistan are ahead of India outside the World Cups as both teams played 131 ODIs in total, in which, Pakistan won 73 matches and India got the results to their side in 54 encounters. The remaining four matches ended with no result.
India will miss the service of Shikhar Dhawan in this all-important clash as the opener has been ruled out of the action for three weeks.
India have already called up Rishabh Pant as a backup option. Dinesh Karthik or Vijay Shankar will fill up the gap of Dhawan in the playing XI while Lokesh Rahul is likely to open the innings along with Rohit Sharma.
Pakistan, on the other hand, will rely heavily on their pace duo — Mohammad Amir and Wahab Riaz. They have the experience and aggression to overcome the challenge of the famous Indian batting prowess.
As in any other match of this World Cup, the cloud remains one of the big concerns ahead of this classic clash as well. As per the latest weather update, rain might play a role in this game but will not ruin it for good.
India’s probable XI: Rohit Sharma, Lokesh Rahul, Virat Kohli (C), Dinesh Karthik, MS Dhoni (wk), Hardik Pandya, Kedar Jadhav, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal amd Jasprit Bumrah
Pakistan’s probable XI: Imam-ul-Haq, Fakhar Zaman, Babar Azam, Mohammad Hafeez, Sarfaraz Ahmed (c & wk), Shoaib Malik, Asif Ali, Hasan Ali, Shadab Khan, Wahab Riaz and Mohammad Amir.UNB
