da cassino： Pakistan could take a few encouraging signs from India’s match against Oman on Friday
da gbg bet： Karthik Krishnaswamy20-Sep-20252:35
How can Afridi deal with Abhishek?
Big pictureRemember the 1986 Asia Cup? The one without India, because they did not want to travel to Sri Lanka? Or the 1990-91 Asia Cup? The one without Pakistan, because they did not want anything to do with India?This Asia Cup could have been one of those Asia Cups, but given the two sides of this particular coin, and given how much that coin is worth, we have instead an Asia Cup where India are about to play Pakistan for the second time in a week, with the possibility of a third meeting in another week’s time. But just so we know things aren’t normal, handshakes are off-limits for one team, and the other doesn’t like the match referee.If it’s somehow possible to put all that aside, Sunday’s Super Fours meeting could be quite interesting from a cricket point of view. India will be back on the field less than 48 hours after playing Oman, and if Pakistan watched that game, they may have seen a few encouraging signs:Related
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A left-arm swing bowler, Shah Faisal, bowled Shubman Gill with his third ball and kept beating Sanju Samson’s bat thereafter. Pakistan have a left-arm swing bowler with a Shah in his name. At various points, India’s batters struggled for fluency on a pitch without a lot of pace in it. India only picked up four Oman wickets.All this, of course, happened when Suryakumar Yadav didn’t bat even though his team lost eight wickets, and when India rested Jasprit Bumrah and Varun Chakravarthy and got five overs out of their sixth, seventh and eighth bowlers combined. India were in full-on experimental mode against Oman, and they won comfortably anyway.Pakistan know all this, and they know India start as overwhelming favourites. But this is the Super Fours, effectively a new tournament with the slate wiped clean for both teams. And while this is an India line-up of frightening strength and depth, the gap between it and less formidable line-ups shrinks in conditions that typically yield smaller totals, such as those in the UAE. There is even an argument to be made that Pakistan made things harder for themselves in last Sunday’s clash by deciding to bat first in conditions that have tended to favour chasing.Given all that, this could still be an India-Pakistan match that we’ll remember years down the line, for cricketing reasons, even if recent history has given us little reason to believe it.Form guideIndia WWWWW (last five completed T20Is, most recent first)
Pakistan WLWWW2:33
Chopra: Pakistan were timid against India’s spin
In the spotlight: Jasprit Bumrah and Saim AyubThree wickets in two games at 15.66, an economy rate of 6.71. Those are excellent numbers in most contexts, but they’re a little… ordinary given that they belong to Jasprit Bumrah and that they make him India’s fourth-best performer with the ball in this Asia Cup. But those numbers don’t really mean anything given the sample sizes involved, and the fact that he has been asked to do unusual things like bowling three overs in the powerplay. And anyway, this is the start of the tournament proper. As in any other game Bumrah plays, he starts it as one of the likeliest figures on either side to win it all by himself.Zero, 0, 0. Saim Ayub has been a valuable performer with the ball during this Asia Cup, but he has literally contributed nothing with his primary skill. That said, he has been dismissed three times playing ambitious shots right at the start of his innings. That sort of intent is exactly what Pakistan have brought Ayub into their line-up for, and this sort of run of low scores is the flip side of that intent. It can happen to anyone; how he and Pakistan react could be the barometer of how fully they have embraced this new way.Team newsAxar Patel went off the field during Oman’s innings on Friday, after his head struck the ground while he stumbled in the course of a missed catch, and did not return thereafter. There has been no indication from the team management that he won’t be fit to play Sunday’s clash, but if he isn’t available, India may have to depart from the three-spinner strategy they have employed in all their Dubai games, and live with less batting depth than they are accustomed to.Will they shake hands on Sunday at the toss?•Associated Press
India (possible): 1 Abhishek Sharma, 2 Shubman Gill, 3 Suryakumar Yadav (capt), 4 Tilak Varma, 5 Sanju Samson (wk), 6 Shivam Dube, 7 Hardik Pandya, 8 Axar Patel/Harshit Rana/Arshdeep Singh, 9 Kuldeep Yadav, 10 Jasprit Bumrah, 11 Varun Chakravarthy.After losing to India last Sunday, Pakistan made two changes against UAE, bringing in Haris Rauf and Khushdil Shah, a frontline quick and a specialist batter, for Sufiyan Muqeem and Faheem Ashraf, a wristspinner and a seam-bowling allrounder. All four bring different things to the table, and it remains to be seen which combination Pakistan go for.Pakistan (possible): 1 Sahibzada Farhan, 2 Saim Ayub, 3 Fakhar Zaman, 4 Salman Agha (capt), 5 Hasan Nawaz, 6 Khushdil Shah, 7 Mohammad Haris (wk), 8 Mohammad Nawaz, 9 Shaheen Shah Afridi, 10 Haris Rauf, 11 Abrar Ahmed.Pitch and conditionsSpin is king all over the UAE, but more so in Dubai than in Abu Dhabi. Expect India to go back to three spinners if Axar is fit. Chasing teams tend to get a significant advantage in Dubai – they won 15 straight Full-Member-vs-Full-Member T20Is here at one point – but recent results have been more even – the last five such contests have brought the chasing team three wins and two defeats. Dew, according to Suryakumar, has been less evident than it was during the 2021 T20 World Cup, when India were severely disadvantaged by losing tosses.Stats and trivia India have an 11-3 (10-3 plus the tie they won via bowl-out at the 2007 T20 World Cup) head-to-head record against Pakistan in T20Is. Sanju Samson needs 83 runs to become the 12th India batter to 1000 in T20Is. Hardik Pandya is four wickets short of 100 in T20Is, while Faheem Ashraf is two short of 50.Quotes”Toss hasn’t made much of a difference. The wicket doesn’t change that much. There hasn’t been that much dew either.”
“Our batting has been a little up and down. The conditions are slightly tough for batters, and a lot of the boys have been discussing how best to tackle them. Hopefully our top three can bat longer – if they do, we’ll be in a position to set a good total. And in these conditions, chasing won’t be easy.”
