Few thousand years ago a person called Babar travelled with his men from Samarkand in the Central Asia to win and rule India. His Mughal Dynasty ruled India for along long time. Today on 14 October 2023 another cricket celebrity leading a team of 11 players will appear in Pakistan-India Cricket World War in a winner takes all encounter at Narendra Modi stadium, Ahmedabad, Gujarat. One of 10 participating teams will win CWC 2023. But more than that billion cricket admirers across the cricket world are eagerly awaiting to witness the blockbuster cricket match today.
The two teams met 7 times in the world cup. India won every time in the past. Pakistan however beat India in T20 world cup and Champions trophy. In the recent past India beat Pakistan at the Asia Cup. For political rivalry the two teams do not play in any bilateral series not even on neutral venues. Pakistani players do not play in IPL and similarly Indian players do not appear in PSL. But there exist millions of admirers of the top players in each other country. The intensity of the contest is so great that all the tickets of the mega contest at 120.000 capacity stadium has been sold out. All rooms of hotel, motel, resorts have been booked. No tickets are available in Airways, Trains, and public transports. Well to do families have chartered aircrafts to travel to Ahmedabad. Even persons have booked for emergency medical checkup and accommodation at hospitals. Cricket admirers of India or Pakistan care less who wins CWC 2023. But their team must win the contest.
India and Pakistan both winning their first two matches comfortably have already established comfortable position in the points table for moving into the semifinals. The team that will win today will consolidate its position. India, the top team in ICC ODI ranking has crashed five-time champions Australia in their first match. They also won against Afghanistan comfortably. Pakistan had easy ride against Netherlands. The also beat Sri Lanka setting an enviable milestones of highest run chase in World Cup match. The match between two evenly matched teams is set to witness mouthwatering contest today. India has a well-balanced unit of flamboyant batsmen and penetrative bowling attack. Pakistan also possess some iconic batsmen and bowlers.
Probable Playing XI:
India: Rohit Sharma (Captain), Ishan Kishan / Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, KL Rahul, Shreyas Iyer, Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandra Ashwin / Shardul Thakur, Mohammad Seraj, Jasprit Bumrah
Pakistan: Abdullah Shafique, Imam ul Haq, Babar Azam (Captain), Mohammad Rizwan, Saud Shakeel, Iftikhar Ahmad, Shadab Khan, Mohammad Newaz/ Usma Mir, Hasan Ali, Haris Rauf, and Shaheen Shah Afridi
In the mega contest there will be some small mini contests as well. Admirers like to see face to face of Shaheen Afridi – Rohit Sharma, Bumrah- Babar, Harris Rouf- Virat Kohli, Kuldeep Yadab – Mohammad Rizwan. Pakistan attack has lost some venom for the absence of Naseem Shah. But his replacement Hasan Ali is also in great form now. All knows that Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli are big event master class and so are Babar Azam, Rizwan. It will be a wonderful contest of strong Pakistan pace attack against flamboyant Indian top order. India bats way down to the bottom. KL Rahul, Hardik Pandya and even Jadeja can win matches. Pakistan now has two class young batsmen Abdullah Shafique and Saud Shakeel in addition to Babar and Rizwan. Iftikhar is also a blaster.
We are not sure what kind of surface will be presented. Usually, ICC events have sporting wickets. But all knows ICC is influenced by India. In any case the Indo -Pak cricket war we believe will be entertaining and exciting. Let the better team playing better cricket win fair today.
BDST: 0941 HRS, OCT 14, 2023
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