The qualifying phase of the world cup is over and the real deal starts on Saturday with Australia taking on South Africa but for many in Dubai, and elsewhere, the mouthwatering Sunday clash is the real McCoy.
For the locals, it feels like the T20 World Cup is a one-game tournament, with people happily forking out AED 2,400 (TK 70,000 approx) for a ticket.
Former left-arm quick Mohammad Amir has made his prediction for the upcoming blockbuster T20 World Cup match between India and Pakistan on Sunday.
Amir, mentioned that even though it is hard to predict results in T20 cricket, he would believe that India hold a slight advantage over Pakistan due to the fact that they are coming into the ICC event having played the Indian Premier League which took place in the UAE.
“To be honest, you cannot predict much in T20 cricket. As far as India vs Pakistan is concerned, you can say that India are unbeaten against Pakistan until now but you can’t really decide anything in a T20 match,” Amir said on the show Uncut.
“But I will give India the edge because their players recently played the IPL here. So, they know the conditions better than Pakistan. The prediction for me will be 60-40. 10 percent I will give India.”
Even though Pakistan have won more matches than India overall, they have never been able to get it past their rivals in World Cups. India brag of a formidable 12-0 record against Pakistan – 7-0 in ODIs and 5-0 in the 50-overs format – when it comes to the showpiece event. Amir feels the team handling pressure well will have a better chance of winning the match and added that contrary to the earlier beliefs that Ind-Pak matches were about India's batsmen up against Pakistan's bowlers, things are different now.
“India vs Pakistan is always under pressure. Babar is leading the team and is performing well. This is a plus point for Pakistan. His pair with Rizwan is doing well. Pakistan’s batting is not doing too badly to be honest,” he added.
“Earlier, we used to say that it was about Pakistan’s bowling up against India’s batting. But now I feel Pakistan’s batting appears slightly stronger because Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli were struggling in the IPL. So, they will be under a bit of pressure.”
