ICC T20 WORLD CUP 2012: India vs Pakistan -Preview

Elaine Stockdale / 30-09-2012 / 6.00 pm

After being crushed by a Watson-Warner showcase in their opening Super Eights match against Australia, a shaken Indian outfit will need to revive and regroup to consider themselves a chance against a valiant Pakistan side in their must-win match tonight.

The Indian team crumbled with bat and ball against Australia and will need skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Virat Kholi – both who performed average with the bat – to inspire the squad for a convincing win against their arch-rivals tonight.

Pakistan who beat South Africa in a nail bitter on Friday night will be confident coming into the match, if Imran Nazir, Umar Gul and Umar Akmal get comfortable with the bat, India will have to depend on their bowlers – which didn’t work out against Australia.

The five-bowler strategy that sparked a thumping win over England in the group stage match was a complete failure for India when they faced Australia – only one wicket was taken by the bowlers in the whole innings.

Ravichandran Ashwin and Piyush Chawla failed to deliver disappointingly bowling half tosses, in the end it cost India more than what the drizzle Dhoni blamed the loss on, ever could.

Chawla may be lucky to get another chance to play in tonight’s match, while Virenda Sehwag has been heavily supported by avid cricket fans and players to make a return to the squad. If Sehwag doesn’t make the squad, Dhoni will need to reconsider the line up of his opening and middle order batsman.

Pakistan was lucky to get away with the win against South Africa when they suddenly found themselves at 76 for 7, only to be chasing a mediocre 134. They will need consistency and sharpness throughout their batting line up tonight, putting less pressure on Umar Gul who was incredible for the green shirts.

Pakistan are on a winning streak but must be wary that they almost came undone against South Africa. Captain Mohammad Hafeez will be aiming for better pressure on the ground and for Shahid Afridi and Saeed Ajmal to be sharp and at their best.

Match details:

Venue will be R.Premadasa Stadium, Colombo, with starting time at 7:30 pm (IST), 24:00 am (AUST EST).

The proposed line up:

India squad
MS Dhoni*†, G Gambhir, R Ashwin, L Balaji, PP Chawla, AB Dinda, Harbhajan Singh, Z Khan, V Kohli, IK Pathan, SK Raina, V Sehwag, RG Sharma, MK Tiwary, Yuvraj Singh

Pakistan squad
Mohammad Hafeez*, Abdul Razzaq, Asad Shafiq, Imran Nazir, Kamran Akmal†, Mohammad Sami, Nasir Jamshed, Raza Hasan, Saeed Ajmal, Shahid Afridi, Shoaib Malik, Sohail Tanvir, Umar Akmal, Umar Gul, Yasir Arafat

Kholi and Dhoni Photo Source: India News