Cricket matches between India and Pakistan are always the talk of the cricketing world. The India-Pakistan match represents one of the biggest and age-old rivalries. These are two cricketing nations who absolutely hate losing to each other. These matches are even more special when they are scheduled to take place in big, global tournament like the Cricket World Cup. Both teams will be locking horns in the opening round of the tournament on the 16th of June. Thus, a few former cricketers have given their opinions and predictions regarding this high-profile contest.
Former Indian national team player and the current Chennai Super Kings star, Harbhajan Singh, the captain of the Kings XI Punjab, Ravichandran Ashwin and the former Pakistani national team player, Younis Khan were the ones who recently gave their predictions for the game to Hindustan Times.
Below is what Singh had to say:
Pakistan’s form isn’t that great and they don’t have much experience as well. Pakistani teams in the past were difficult to beat but their current team will lose 9 times out of 10 against India. The pressure will be more on India. When two fighters spar, the stronger one always has the fear of failure. Pressure of losing against Pakistan will be immense. Because I know what happens in India when we lose to Pakistan,
While Khan that the Indian team’s experience might be a double-edged sword, as it may put them under more pressure:
The current Indian team is very experienced and the core group has been playing cricket for a long time now. Pakistan on the other hand, has some young and exciting talents who have just burst on to the international stage. But the flip side of that is when young players come in they don’t know what pressure is. Pakistan didn’t start well in World Cup 2019 but we have always been slow starters. But I hope they gradually go up in this tournament.
Ashwin too seemingly agreed with Khan a bit, and stated that India should not be too complacent and Pakistan do posses a serious threat:
Like Younis bhai said, the experience of not having played under pressure and the magnitude of it, they don’t play in Pakistan any more. All these things are big factors, But see what happened in the Champions Trophy final in 2017. They have the skill especially in their bowling department. They can bowl out any team if they have the runs on the board.
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