India-Pakistan Face-Off in Champions Trophy; Must-Win Game for Pakistan
Dubai (The Uttam Hindu): A big match is going to be held on Sunday in the Champions Trophy. The Indian cricket team is going to play against Pakistan at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium. This will be the second match of both the teams in the Champions Trophy. India won the first match against Bangladesh by 6 wickets, while the host Pakistan had to face defeat against New Zealand. So far 135 ODI matches have been played between the two teams, where Pakistan has won 73 and India has won 57 matches.
This edition of the Champions Trophy is going very differently for India and Pakistan. While Pakistan suffered a crushing defeat at the hands of New Zealand in the first match, India started the tournament campaign with a victory against Bangladesh.
The situation for Pakistan is such that they are facing the threat of being eliminated from the ICC tournament for which they waited for nearly three decades in just four days. On top of that, their in-form and aggressive batsman Fakhar Zaman, who can single-handedly turn the tables in matches, has also been ruled out of the tournament due to injury.
Eye on taking revenge of 2017 final
Against a troubled Pakistan, the Rohit Sharma-led Indian team will be looking to avenge their Champions Trophy final loss to Pakistan in England 8 years ago. It is also a matter of relief for India that Zaman, the hero of the match in that final, is now out of the competition. India had a good test in both bowling and batting against Bangladesh. While Axar was close to a hat-trick at one point, Mohammed Shami also continued his ICC love with a five-wicket haul. Although Virat Kohli's cheap dismissal will definitely hurt India, but Shubman Gill's consistency and Rohit Sharma's aggressive intent will boost morale.
The slow Dubai pitch will bring another test for Pakistan, which they have brought upon themselves. The only specialist spinner in the Pakistan team is Abrar Ahmed, apart from this there is definitely a spin option in the form of Salman Agha and Khushdil Shah, but both of them could not make much impact against New Zealand. Once again, the team winning the toss on the Dubai pitch can decide to bat first, because as the game progresses, the pitch will slow down further. Also, due to the early start of the match in Dubai, the effect of dew will also be very less here.
Probable Indian XI: Rohit Sharma (captain), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul, Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammed Shami, Arshdeep Singh, Kuldeep Yadav
Pakistan XI: Imam-ul-Haq, Babar Azam, Mohammad Rizwan (captain and wicketkeeper), Saud Shakeel, Salman Agha, Tayyab Tahir, Khushdil Shah, Shaheen Afridi, Naseem Shah, Abrar Ahmed, Haris Rauf
