IND vs PAK 22nd Match Prediction

IND vs PAK Team Previews

India

India is unbeaten in the ICC World Cup 2019 as of now and has looked one of the best teams in the entire tournament. Confident wins against South Africa and Australia were followed by a rained-out encounter against New Zealand.

As good a start as they have had to their campaign, India goes into this match with a few major concerns. Shikhar Dhawan fractured his finger during the match against Australia and is going to be unavailable for this match.

He is a part of India’s famed top-3 and also scored a century in the previous game. His absence will mean that India has to get another player into the side and make some changes to its batting order also.

Lokesh Rahul traveled to England as the reserve opening batsman but cemented his place at number 4 in the warm-ups. He is now going to have to make another adjustment and come back to open the batting. It helps the Lokesh Rahul is in good form but this is going to be a massive test for him.

India now has to decide what to do about their number 4 slot. We think that they are going to include Vijay Shankar into the side since he did pretty well in New Zealand at that position. Shankar is also a brilliant fielder giving him the edge.

The other option that India has is to move up Dhoni and Jadhav one place and add Dinesh Karthik to the lower order.

India has so far played Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvaneshwar Kumar, Yuzvendra Chahal, and Kuldeep Yadav backed up by Hardik Pandya and Kedar Jadhav. We think they might consider playing Mohammad Shami in place of Kuldeep Yadav if the conditions remain overcast.

All in all, India has the bench strength to be able to adapt to the loss of Dhawan but doing so in a pressure match against Pakistan could really test their resolve.

Pakistan

One win from four matches has left Pakistan in a tough spot. They lost their match against the West Indies and their match against Sri Lanka was rained out as well. They must win at least four out of their remaining five matches in the ICC World Cup 2019 if they want to be sure of qualifying for the Cricket World Cup 2019 semi-finals.

To say that Pakistan is an unpredictable side is a cliché but it is well deserved. They collapsed in a heap against the West Indies and then scored close to 350 against England after which they once again failed to chase 307 against Australia.

Fakhar Zaman, Imam ul Haq, and Babar Azam are a dangerous top-3. Fakhar Zaman may not be very consistent but he will have good memories of taking apart India’s attack in the Champions Trophy final. Imam and Babar are much more consistent and must score runs if Pakistan has to have a chance.

Babar Azam is rated as one of the best ODI players in the world and this is the time to prove it.

Mohammad Hafeez is in excellent rhythm and is playing his best cricket at number 4. He has the power game to be able to accelerate when needed and is also very good against the spinners.

After these four the batting starts to become shaky. Sarfaraz Ahmed at 5 is a bit too high, Shoaib Malik is struggling for form and may be replaced by Haris Sohail while Asif Ali seems too one dimensional to be successful at this level of the game.

Wahab Riaz and Hasan Ali can slog for a bit but they cannot be trusted to hang around against a quality bowling attack.

Pakistan also has to decide on its team combination for this match. They dropped Shadab Khan in the previous match and included Shaheen Afridi but that meant they had no quality spinner in the side. Mohammad Amir is back in wicket-taking form and he will be the biggest threat in this match.

His opening spell against the Indian top-order is going to determine which way the match goes.

If Wahab Riaz, Hasan Ali, and the rest can back him up then Pakistan definitely has the bowling to win.