Ahead of India’s high-octane clash against arch-rivals Pakistan during the ongoing ICC Champions Trophy, former Indian batter Suresh Raina said that the match will be a “big” one and the gold will come back to India on March 9.
Unlike the 50-over and T20 World Cups, Pakistan has a 3-2 advantage over India in the Champions Trophy, having secured a 180-run triumph in the 2017 final during the peak of star India batter Virat Kohli where no target was too much for his men. They will be heading to Dubai with plenty of momentum.
Speaking to the media, Raina said, “India is playing well. The trophy will come to India on 9th March. The way Shubman Gill is batting, Rohit Sharma led the team strongly, the performance of Mohammed Shami and the way he made a comeback after injury was great. India vs Pakistan match will be big.”
Team India will have to be in its top form heading into the match. While the top-order collapse of Bangladesh against India in the campaign opener was incredible, they did let their opponents escape such a spot of bother by letting Jaker Ali and Towhid Hridoy add 154 runs that took Bangladesh to 228 runs. Also during the run-chase, India struggled against Rishad Hossain’s spin and was reduced to 144/4 during the run-chase. Virat Kohli in particular looked out-of-form against spin, taking 10 balls to open his account and scoring a sluggish 38-ball 22 before perishing to spin.
While stars have aligned more often than not for India’s top stars against Pakistan in recent years, they will have to find a way to deal with the fiery pace of Shaheen Shah Afridi, Haris Rauf and Naseem Shah and the crafty spin bowling of Abrar Ahmed and Salman Agha and a rock-solid batting line-up headlined by Babar Azam and Mohammed Rizwan, which might spring up a surprise against India, eager to bounce back after a painful loss to New Zealand.
Also, the absence of Jasprit Bumrah will give Pakistan an added motivation to go hard against India, who have an inexperienced fast-bowling line-up headlined by Mohammed Shami, the veteran who has just made a return from an injury that sidelined him for more than a year.
India squad for Champions Trophy: Rohit Sharma (c), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul, Rishabh Pant, Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Kuldeep Yadav, Harshit Rana, Mohd. Shami, Arshdeep Singh, Ravindra Jadeja, Varun Chakaravarthy.
Pakistan squad for Champions Trophy: Mohammad Rizwan (c), Babar Azam, Imam-ul-Haq, Kamran Ghulam, Saud Shakeel, Tayyab Tahir, Faheem Ashraf, Khushdil Shah, Salman Ali Agha, Usman Khan, Abrar Ahmed, Haris Rauf, Mohammad Hasnain, Naseem Shah, Shaheen Shah Afridi. (ANI)
