Big picture: Pakistan’s fight for survival
If ever Pakistan needed a miracle, it is now. Not for the cricketers’ fault, they find themselves isolated in international cricket to the extent that this is the first ICC event they are hosting in 29 years. And barely three days into the
Champions Trophy, following a
thrashing against New Zealand, they are staring at the exit sign of a party they waited three decades to host.
To stay alive in the tournament, Pakistan must beat their arch-rivals on a slow, tired track, where
India have already played and won one match, and have five spinners to choose from. For no fault of India’s cricketers, Pakistan must leave their own party and travel to Dubai because India refused to travel to Pakistan for reasons neither their board nor their government will specify. Would you blame Pakistan for feeling under siege when they must fight to even
reinstate their nation’s name in the official broadcast branding? At such times, the reasons behind any such omission can seem sinister even if they might not be.
It creates a weird dynamic between the two sets of cricketers. Despite all the machinations, the cricketers respect each other and are civil to each other to the extent that it annoys those who want their own hatred to reflect on the field. The edge is also perhaps because of the gulf between the two sides.
As is likely to happen with a team left isolated, Pakistan, once at the forefront of innovation in Asia, are woefully behind the times, especially in limited-overs cricket. India, once the land of accumulators but not always winners, are now continuously striving to push into the future. In an era that the ICC engineers its tournament schedules to ensure at least one big India-Pakistan match, it says a lot that
Pakistan have won only in 2017 and 2021 since 2011.
More than the four-year pattern of wins, Pakistan will look at the conditions with some hope. The slow pitches in Dubai, recently used for the ILT20, call for an old-fashioned game that could neutralise to an extent India’s big-hitting advantage in the middle overs. With no dew – 1pm starts anyway leave little room for dew to play a role – the toss on these pitches is a big advantage. In similar conditions last year, Sri Lanka got the better of India in a bilateral series at home with an unheralded spin attack. They won the tosses, batted first and got mid-200s in each game. Pakistan will hope for a repeat, but India will also lean on the lessons they have learnt.
Pakistan LLWLW (last five completed ODIs, most recent first)
India WWWWL
In the spotlight: Virat Kohli and Salman Agha
Virat Kohli has been out to legspin in each of the five last matches that he has faced such bowling. That’s five dismissals for 21 runs in the last 46 balls of legspin he has faced in ODIs. Now Pakistan don’t have a classic legspinner in their ranks, but
Abrar Ahmed does turn the ball both ways like a legspinner. Most batters these days can hit big on flat tracks, but it is here you need the skill to pick singles without taking risks. It is not hard to imagine India needing just that in one of these games. Will the Kohli of the old turn up?
Salman Agha has been the silver lining for Pakistan in recent ODI cricket. Since 2024, he has scored the second-most middle-over runs for Pakistan: 325, at an average of 65.00 and a strike rate of 88.07. Pakistan will need all of his industriousness in the middle overs when India try to choke them with their slower bowlers.
Team news: Imam or Usman in place of Fakhar?
Imam-ul-Haq has come into the squad as
the replacement for the one dynamic opener Pakistan had, Fakhar Zaman. Usman Khan is their other reserve batter, but if he does make his ODI debut, he will have to do so in an unfamiliar role: he bats at No. 4 in List A cricket.
Pakistan (possible): 1 Imam-ul-Haq, 2 Babar Azam, 3 Saud Shakeel, 4 Mohammad Rizwan (capt, wk), 5 Salman Agha, 6 Tayyab Tahir, 7 Khushdil Shah, 8 Shaheen Shah Afridi, 9 Naseem Shah, 10 Haris Rauf, 11 Abrar Ahmed
There’s no reason for India to make any changes to their combination or personnel.
India (possible): 1 Rohit Sharma (capt), 2 Shubman Gill, 3 Virat Kohli, 4 Shreyas Iyer, 5 KL Rahul (wk), 6 Hardik Pandya, 7 Ravindra Jadeja, 8 Axar Patel, 9 Harshit Rana, 10 Mohammed Shami, 11 Kuldeep Yadav
India wanted to field first in their opening game against Bangladesh but given the way the pitch slowed up and how there was no dew, don’t expect any side to make that mistake in Dubai again. Expect teams to make the most of powerplay before the middle overs tie them up. It is hard to see the trend changing on pitches that were recently used for a whole T20 tournament.
Stats and trivia: India dominate Pakistan
