After more than 15 months, India and Pakistan will play a Twenty20 international in Dubai, and a lot has changed since then.
Since Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli retired from the shortest format, India, led by Suryakumar Yadav, has emerged as a formidable team, winning 85% of its games.
Pakistan, on the other side, has also displayed some aggression since the T20 World Cup in the USA, where the team even lost to the home country.
This setup no longer includes Muhammad Rizwan and Babar Azam, and the new look team led by Salman Ali Agha is also performing admirably.
Here are some of the matchups that could be the most intriguing in the marquee clash:
Shubman Gill vs Shaheen Shah Afridi: It’s going to be an even fight. The Indian vice-captain and Pakistan’s pace leader will face each other in a Twenty20 international for the first time. Gill, incidentally, did not play in any of Shaheen’s three matches against India (all in T20 World Cups).
Early on, when a right-hand hitter shows no footwork and his nip-backer falls on ideal length, Shaheen is a nightmare. Gill would definitely be cautious about that. Gill’s record against left-arm seamers in the 15 Twenty20 Internationals that he faced, however, is not bad.
In total, Gill has faced 92 deliveries and amassed 157 runs with a strike-rate of more than 170. He has struck 20 boundaries and eight sixes, and they have only dismissed him twice. However, it will be a different fight against Shaheen.
Jasprit Bumrah vs Saim Ayub: Saim Ayub’s unusual and courageous stroke-play, which includes a “No Look Six,” has earned him a high rating in Pakistani cricket. It is a stroke in which he executes the pick-up pull behind square without glancing at the delivery.
Saim has used that stroke far too frequently in the PSL with varying degrees of success, but it would be intriguing to observe his response time when it swings or travels off the surface at 140+ clicks against the best fast bowler in the world across all formats.
Kuldeep Yadav vs Fakhar Zaman: The most anticipated matchup will be between the most shrewd bowler in the Indian T20 lineup and the unpredictable Pakistani southpaw. The way Pakistan will bat as a team will also depend on how Fakhar handles Kuldeep’s googlies, the one that turns into a left-hander.
Fakhar doesn’t frequently play that type of bowler, according to his T20 statistics (domestic plus international). Fakhar has faced just 15 deliveries from left-arm wrist spinners in his 254 batting innings over 301 T20 matches, scoring 21 runs while being removed once.
Abhishek Sharma vs Abrar Ahmed: The southpaw from Amritsar is the talk of India’s Twenty20 team. He is one of the cleanest hitters in the game, and his record against leg-spinners, or right-arm wrist spinners, can make opposing captains shudder.
He has actually faced 51 deliveries from right-arm leggies in all T20s (local and international) over the last two years, scoring 151 runs at a strike-rate of around 300. Therefore, if Abhishek stays unbeaten after Powerplay, Abrar Ahmed will need to be used sparingly.
Varun Chakravarthy vs Hasan Nawaz: The new pin-up kid for the Pakistan T20 team has a respectable strike-rate of 161+ in T20 matches, but in his brief career, he hasn’t exactly performed well against wrist spinners, whether they are left-arm or right-arm.
Hasan was dismissed while attempting to attack Rashid Khan in one game and Noor Ahmed in another during the recently finished tri-nation at Sharjah, which was a little harder to bat on against slow bowlers.
In one game, Hasan holed out while attempting to fetch a delivery from Rashid outside off-stump, and against Noor, he perished trying a paddle sweep to one pitched outside leg-stump.
Varun Chakravarthy’s over-spin on deliveries that dip late and bounce more could make him more than handful, as Hasan struggles to read off the hand.
