Following Islamabad’s U-turn and the decision to play in the highly anticipated T20 World Cup match, India stated on Tuesday that it would be “a challenge” to play a “quality” Pakistani team in Colombo.
Late Monday, the Pakistani government revoked its order for the cricket team to boycott the February 15 match, ending a week-long standoff.
“It’s great that the game is back on, we kind of never changed the preparation,” AFP quoted India assistant coach Ryan ten Doeschate as saying.
Prior to their flight to Sri Lanka, India will play Namibia in their second Group A match on Thursday in New Delhi. It indicates a speedy turnaround for the match on Sunday, which is the most important and profitable match in world cricket.
“It’s going to be a challenge going to Colombo where Pakistan have been for the last two weeks. We are delighted to have another chance to play against a quality side in the first phase of the tournament. We are fully focused on just bringing our best game to that fixture,” added Ten Doeschate.
With their second victory of the tournament in Colombo on Tuesday, defeating the USA by 32 runs, Pakistan prepared for the match in perfect fashion. Opener Sahibzada Farhan, who top scored with 73, declared: “The match is on and we are in a confident mood.”
In their most recent meeting, which took place at the T20 Asia Cup last year, India defeated Pakistan three times en route to winning the trophy in Dubai.
“This time it will be different and we will give a strong performance. We lost all three matches including the final to India in the Asia Cup but they were not one-sided,” said Farhan.
