The upcoming fixture of ICC World Cup 2019 will be one of the most watched and thrilling matches of this year as Pakistan will be facing India at Manchester in their 5th match of the World Cup. Currently, India stands on 4th rank having 5 points with 2 victories and 1 draw due to an abandoned match against New Zealand. On the contrary, Pakistan is ranked 8th with 3 points due to 2 losses against West Indies and Australia, a win against England and a draw against Sri Lanka due to an abandoned match because of rain.
Both the teams have a serious chance of winning as both of them will be performing at their best as it is a match at a crucial stage of the cup and will decide the future of both teams in this World Cup. Furthermore, the rivalry between the two teams will add to the excitement of the match. However, only time will tell who will be victorious amongst both rivals.
Regarding the Indian Cricket Team, their key batsmen would include Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, and MS Dhoni, while from the Indian bowling line-up, Bhuvneshwar Kumar will be the key performer. Whereas from the Pakistan Cricket Team, amongst the batting line-up Fakhar Zaman, Babar Azam, Sarfaraz Ahmed, and Asif Ali would be the key players. From the bowling line-up, Mohammad Amir would be the match-changing player.
India has a pretty strong batting line-up as all their players are capable of batting quite well. This can be seen as both the current best batsmen are a part of the Indian Team, this includes Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli. All their players except for Kuldeep, Chahal and Jasprit Bumrah are proper batsmen. According to the Indian Strategy, they would be relying more on their first three batsmen and would hope for a longer opening partnership so they could score a higher run chase for their Rival Opponents. Rohit Sharma, no doubt is a good batsman but lacks the ability to deal with a swing from a fast pacer like Mohammad Amir. Thus he should be focusing more on it and try to stand on the pitch as long as possible as it will be a huge benefit for the Indian Team.
However, the Indian side would face difficulty as Shikhar Dhawan has been ruled out of the World Cup due to an injury against Australia. Virat Kohli finds difficulty in balls swinging away from him and thus should focus on improving it and trying to bat for a longer period as his presence makes everything different, after all, he is the best batsman in the world. Rahul should continue to perform like he is and Hardik Pandya too is at the peak of his performance. No doubt that Virat Kohli is the Captain of the Indian Team, but most of the decisions are made by MS Dhoni as he is way too experienced and knows how to tackle different situations. His presence can be seen everywhere. Plus, Dhoni is an awesome batsman and it is true that there are only a few players like him. Regarding, the Bowling Performance of India, Hardik Pandya, and Jasprit Bumrah should focus more on their line and length, whereas Bhuvneshwar Kumar should keep up with his current performance. However, the Indian Team does not require much improvement as they are well set and performing artfully.
The changes that will probably be made by India would include KL Rahul in place of Shikhar Dhawan as he suffered a thumb injury and is out of the World Cup. However, there stands a conflict upon whom to choose against Pakistan, Dinesh Karthik or Vijay Shankar. Reports suggest that India will probably go for selecting Vijay Shankar as he is an all-rounder. No other changes are expected by the Indian Team.
On the other hand, the Pakistani Team requires a lot of improvement due to their current rank in the table. Regarding their batting, Fakhar Zaman needs to improve on facing bouncy balls and play carefully, unlike the previous matches. Imam-ul-Haq should be more concerned about the team, rather than playing for himself and should pick up the pace with the situation of innings. Other than that Imam needs to focus more on waist height balls pitching on his left. Babar Azam must improve on short balls as he has been dismissed twice from such balls. Hafeez should maintain his master-class performance to boost the score of Pakistan team and about his bowling, he should try flight balls, at least once over and try to concede fewer runs. Sarfaraz should improve his keeping skills and select a proper team and fielding and prevent from foolish decisions. Asif Ali plays well, but lacks experience and thus makes mistakes on several stages. Asif Ali would be Pakistan’s necessity as he is a match-changing player. Amir should continue to put on his world-class performance and try to repeat the magic of ICC Champions Trophy 2017 final. Wahab Riaz must continue to ball like he has bowled in the matches against England and Australia, though he would need a fielder on the slip in every over due to his short balls and perform reverse-swing throughout his spell. Hassan Ali must continue to bat as he did against Australia, however, his bowling needs improvement regarding its pace and should ball slow balls and try short balls as well.
Several Changes are required by the Pakistan Team, PCB and Inzamam-ul-Haq should advise Sarfaraz to replace Shaheen Afridi with Mohammad Hasnain due to his fast and short balls. If not Mohammad Hasnain then Imad Wasim should be selected instead of Shaheen Afridi. As Imad Wasim is an all-rounder, he would benefit more than anyone else in the current situation, plus he performed well against India in the ICC Champions Trophy Final as well. However, reports suggest that Shadab Khan will be included in the squad over Shaheen Afridi and no other change would be made.
In the end, all we can hope is that the weather remains calm and there may be no rain as it would spoil the party and as well as the Table Standings. It is difficult to predict who will be victorious as both the teams are good and have serious chances of winning. It depends on luck and surely those who have worked hard will be victorious. Will it be India who would put on a classical performance and go on to win this rivalry match? Or will it be Pakistan who would snatch away the victory from their rivals?
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