Brace up for thriller in Adelaide

India look to maintain their unbeaten streak against Pakistan in the quadrennial big bash

If you needed to know how charged-up the atmosphere is going to be when India and Pakistan face-off in their Sunday’s World Cup opener, you got a sneak peak of it on the eve of the much-talked-about match as both teams went through their paces here at the Adelaide Oval on Saturday.

Everything appeared normal when the Indian players held their ‘nets’ in a morning session with a sizeable number of their fans witnessing them go through their routines; every now then the chants of ‘India zindabad’ and ‘jeetega bhai jeetega, India jeetega’ drowning the sound of the ball meeting the bat. Tension, however, began to build up when Pakistani players turned up at the venue for their practice.
A good number of Pakistani supporters had gathered to cheer their players on while a fair few Indian fans had stayed back and you could almost sense the tension in the air. Each slogan was countered by the other group and it was as though a rehearsal for shouting match was going on between the two. All of them put together could have been just around 400 in numbers but imagine the situation when around 40,000 of them turn up here on Sunday.

An India-Pakistan contest is the cricket’s equivalent of a Brazil-Argentina clash in football where there is more at stake than a mere victory. Through their history, India and Pakistan have strived hard to establish domination over each other and in a cyclical occurrence both teams have enjoyed success over each other for certain periods. When it comes to World Cup, though, India have remained unchallenged by Pakistan whether in Australia or in England or in South Africa or in India. India’s head-to-head record against Pakistan stands at 5-0 and it’s a streak that rivals some of the winningest runs in international sport. It’s a streak that India will look to protect, and Pakistan to break. On immediate form, Pakistan can claim that they have a slight edge as far as the confidence is concerned. While it needed an Afghanistan for India to end their winning drought in Australia for over two months, Pakistan won their both warm-up matches against Bangladesh and England with some degree of comfort. But then form is often superfluous to an India-Pakistan contest where you need to bring more than your skillsets to the table. It’s as much about performance as it’s about handling pressure. India, for the moment, have got a wood on Pakistan so far as World Cup contests are concerned but again, as the sporting cliché goes, you are as good as your last game.

Like Pakistan, India too face similar problems. Both teams have lost some of their key players to injuries or fretting about niggles that can flare up any time during the tournament. The one thing that skipper MS Dhoni will be relieved about is Rohit Sharma regaining full fitness. With Shikhar Dhawan not in the best of forms, India needed Rohit back to provide some stability at the top of the order. Virat Kohli, despite his spate of failures post the Test series remains India’s best bet to counter the Pakistani attack while Dhoni needs to rediscover his finishing touch. Like Kohli, the Jharkhandi too has managed a series of low scores – 19, 34, 17, 0, 10 – in the tri-series and warm-up matches and that has left the Indian batting a bit vulnerable. It’s precisely this situation that will determine their combination as much as the conditions.

While the first seven – Dhawan, Rohit, Kohli, Suresh Raina, Ajinkya Rahane, Dhoni and Ravindra Jadeja -- pick themselves it will be a race between Stuart Binny, R Ashwin, Mohammad Shami, Umesh Yadav and Mohit Sharma for the remaining four slots. If India feel the need to have the extra batting cushion they may opt for Binny, Ashwin and two seamers. But if they want a three-pronged pace attack then one of Binny and Ashwin will sit out. Given Ahsiwn’s track record against Pakistan, the off-spinner may just get the nod ahead of Binny.

Man-to-man Pakistan may not match India in resources, but they are a mix of exciting talent and experienced heads. They have the dependable Misbah-ul-Haq and Younis Khan while someone like Ahmed Shahzad is a rising star. There is always Shahid Afridi to change the course of the game if he is in the right mood. Led by the towering Mohammad Irfan, Pakistani attack is capable causing enough damage if not put under early pressure. And that’s what it will eventually boil down to; handling pressure.
DH News Service