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India vs Pakistan is finally here. Over to cricket now
Well, everything about this game is big picture. If we needed a reminder of how much in cricket is sustained by this fixture, it came over the past two weeks, when it dangled over the precipice of not happening at all. The result of an India-Pakistan match might feel like it means everything, but, as the ICC view has appeared for at least the last decade and a half, it doesn’t have to mean anything at all. It just needs to happen.
And then there’s the rivalry. Indian captain Suryakumar Yadav triumphantly declared, after the second of three Asia Cup wins over Pakistan in Dubai, that this was no longer a rivalry, as if it were solely the cricket played within the boundary that had set its terms. India may now measure its cricketing standards against teams that play superior cricket to Pakistan, but crowds still pack stadiums more consistently against this side, and it draws more eyeballs than games against purportedly better competition. In Pakistan, meanwhile, there has never really been an attempt to deny that a win against India matters most of all.
Perhaps it is absence that has made Pakistan supporters’ hearts grow fonder. They have won three games against India in the past decade, and two of them have become iconic enough to be referred to in numerical shorthand. You’d need little further explanation in Pakistan beyond “180 runs” and “152-0” to know what you were talking about. But while they represent two of Pakistan’s three wins, the 17 defeats on the other side of the ledger have clustered into one sad muckheap.
The slightly smaller picture is that this game doesn’t have much riding on it from the tournament’s perspective. Both sides have come through scares to compile 2-0 records against less fancied opposition, and a defeat is unlikely to complicate progress to the next round for either. This, really, is a game that exists for its own sake, outside the context of the tournament it is a part of.
On the field, well, we know the score. India have both a cricketing and psychological edge, having won their three games against Pakistan at the Asia Cup in three different ways. They won with the ball in the first, the bat in the second, and the mind in the final, opening up further wounds in a rivalry whose tide Pakistan are struggling to find ways to reverse. India’s top order is uniquely devastating in T20Is, their middle order has heft, their spin has dazzling world-class variety, and their fast bowling has Jasprit Bumrah. There are increasingly few nits to pick with any of it.
It can feel bleak at times for Pakistan, but only those who know little about Pakistan cricket will assume they go in without hope. Curiously, for all the gulf that has opened up between these sides, Pakistan will be scratching their heads wondering how they don’t come into this match with a three-game T20 World Cup win streak over India. After their decisive win in 2021, they let victory slip from their hands in Melbourne in 2022 and in New York in 2024. It is where they will have learned how vast the difference between hope and belief is, and in moments where the match presents them with opportunities, as those two and last year’s Asia Cup final did, Pakistan will need to find a way to grasp them.
India against Pakistan gets talked about a lot, and almost never for the right reasons. But, for a few hours on Sunday, that’s exactly what could happen. That, in itself, is perhaps a good enough reason to get a game on Sunday, and, with any luck, a good one.
Perhaps no player in this India side loves playing against Pakistan more than Hardil Pandya. Against this opposition, he has a better bowling average, a better bowling economy rate and a better bowling strike rate than his overall T20I numbers. While his T20I batting numbers against Pakistan are not great, every Pakistan fan remembers his 43-ball 76 in a losing cause in the 2017 Champions Trophy final. In the last three games, he has dismissed Babar Azam, Saim Ayub and Fakhar Zaman, with his two-in-one credentials in this fixture offering India the ultimate luxury.
Shaibzada Farhan has played three matches against India, all within two weeks of each other. He scored 40 in the first, following up with two half-centuries, and helped Pakistan get off to dream starts in two games against India at the Asia Cup. Most famous was his relative comfort in dealing with Jasprit Bumrah, against whom he scored at a strike rate of 150 without once losing his wicket. He struck him for three sixes during that purple patch, more than any other batter has managed against Bumrah in their T20I careers. If Pakistan are to finally get over the line against India, they may require the same overperformance at the top, even if Bumrah is a hard man to keep down for long.
Abhishek Sharma has made a recovery in time for the game and will replace Sanju Samson. India wish to add another spin option, which likely means one of Washington Sundar or Kuldeep Yadav will come in for Arshdeep Singh.
India (probable): Ishan Kishan (wk), Abhishek Sharma, Tilak Varma, Suryakumar Yadav (capt), Hardik Pandya, Shivam Dube, Rinku Singh, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Varun Chakravarthy, Jasprit Bumrah.
Pakistan have shown a willingness to stick with Babar Azam in the middle order, and with a commanding performance over USA, there is little immediate clamour for change. There remains a possibility of Fakhar Zaman being brought in, possibly as Usman Khan’s replacement, which would hand Farhan the gloves. Wholesale changes, however, are unlikely.
Pakistan (probable): Sahibzada Farhan (wk), Saim Ayub, Salman Agha (capt), Babar Azam, Shadab Khan, Usman Khan (wk)/Fakhar Zaman, Mohammad Nawaz, Faheem Ashraf, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Usman Tariq, Abrar Ahmed
Salman Ali Agha said that he would have done things ‘differently”, after Mehidy Hasan Miraz ran him out in controversial circumstances in the second ODI in Dhaka.
Agha, who made 64 from 62 balls, had been backing up at the non-striker’s end when Mohammad Rizwan drove the ball back towards him. He was still out of his ground as Mehidy swooped round behind him in an attempt to gather, and Agha had appeared ready to pass the ball back to the bowler before Mehidy reached down to grab it first and throw down the stumps.
Agha reacted furiously to the dismissal, throwing his gloves and helmet down in disgust at the decision. However, he later came to the post-match press conference, ahead of captain Shaheen Shah Afridi and player of the match Maaz Sadaqat, to clear the air.
“I think sportsman spirit has to be there,” Agha said. “What he [Mehidy] has done is in the law. I think if he thinks it’s right, it’s right, but if you ask me my perspective, I would have done differently. I would have gone for sportsman spirit. We haven’t done this [type of thing] previously, we would never do that in the future as well.”
Agha explained that he had been trying to pick up the ball to give to Miraz, thinking it was likely to have been called dead. “Actually, the ball hit on my pad and then my bat,” he said. “So I thought he can’t get me run-out now, because the ball already hit on my pad and my bat.
“I was just trying to give him the ball back. I was not looking for the run or anything like that, but he already decided [to make the run-out].”
Agha however regretted his angry reaction. “It was just heat-of-the-moment kind of stuff,” he said. “If you ask me what would I have done, I would have done things differently. But it was everything, whatever happened after that, it was in the moment.”
He was also involved in a robust exchange with Bangladesh wicketkeeper Litton Das, though he didn’t divulge many of the details.
“I can’t remember what I was saying and I can’t remember what he was saying,” he said. “I’m sure I wasn’t saying nice things, and I’m sure he wasn’t saying nice stuff as well. But it was just heat of the moment, so we are fine.
Asked if he had patched things up with Mehidy, Agha said: “I haven’t yet, but don’t worry, I’ll find him.”
Pakistan won the match by 128 runs via the DLS method.
[Cricinfo]
Latest News
US embassy in Baghdad hit by strike as Trump says military targets ‘obliterated’ on Iran’s key oil island
The US embassy in Baghdad, Iraq, has been hit by a missile – video shows fire and smoke rising in the aftermath.
Meanwhile, President Donald Trump says “every military target” on Iran’s key oil island has been “totally obliterated”, but there was no damage to oil infrastructure.
Kharg Island is a tiny but strategic terminal in the northern Gulf, 22 miles off the coast of Iran In response, Tehran warns oil and energy infrastructure belonging to firms that co-operate with the US will be “turned into a pile of ashes” if Iran’s energy facilities are attacked
Elsewhere in the Middle East: Israel and Iran both warn of fresh attacks, and at least 12 medical staff have been killed in an Israeli strike in Lebanon
Meanwhile, more US Marines and warships are expected to be deployed to the Middle East, two officials tell BBC’s partner CBS News
[BBC]
The Bahrain and Saudi Arabia Grands Prix that were scheduled for next month are set to be cancelled as a result of the war in the Middle East.
A formal decision to call off the races has not yet been made but is expected before the end of the weekend.
Freight would need to start being shipped to the Middle East in the coming days. With no sign of the conflict between the US/Israel and Iran coming to a conclusion, holding the races would put personnel at too great a risk.
Neither event will be replaced, with the season being cut to 22 grands prix and F1 taking a commercial hit of more than £100m, given Bahrain and Saudi Arabia pay two of the highest hosting fees.
The race in Bahrain was scheduled to be on 12 April with Jeddah the following weekend.
Consideration was given to holding events at Portimao in Portugal, Imola in Italy or Istanbul Park in Turkey.
But it was accepted that the time to organise a race at any of those locations was too short, and there was little chance of securing a hosting fee.
The decision will mean there is a five-week break between the Japanese Grand Prix on 29 March and Miami on 3 May.
(BBC)
Agha calls for ‘sportsman spirit’ after controversial dismissal
US embassy in Baghdad hit by strike as Trump says military targets ‘obliterated’ on Iran’s key oil island
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