IND vs PAK: In The T20 Format, Nobody Is A Favourite: Sunil Gavaskar

On Sunday, archrivals India and Pakistan will face off in the Super 12 stage of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup at Melbourne’s famous MCG. 

Last year, India lost the match by 10 wickets against Pakistan in their T20 World Cup group-stage match, which played a significant role in putting them out of the competition early. 

They played each other twice at the Asia Cup a month ago. Despite the fact that Rohit Sharma and his team won the first match, Pakistan tied the game in the second. Both matches, though, came down to the wire and lived up to the hype of an India-Pakistan contest. 

Very Difficult To Predict India vs Pakistan Winner: Sunil Gavaskar

Former Indian skipper Sunil Gavaskar believes there are no favourites in the T20 format as the game changes pretty quickly within an over or two.

“In the T20 format, nobody is a favourite because one over can change the game completely. So, it’s that one over, where a batter can score 20-25 runs or a bowler takes two wickets for not too many runs that can derail the opposition, so it’s very difficult to say who’s the favourite,” Gavaskar said.

“Apart from tomorrow’s game, winning the cup, there are so many teams in contention because today just about every team has got a very good T20 squad,” Gavaskar added.

After exiting the Asia Cup, India has been in good form. They won the home series against Australia and South Africa thanks to their batting lineup’s success. However, death bowling became a significant issue for them as Jasprit Bumrah was ruled out with a back ailment. However, there was some progress seen in the warm-up match against Australia. 

In Ravindra Jadeja’s absence, it has also been difficult to establish the correct team balance, although Axar Patel has remedied that problem to some level in recent games, at least with his bowling. Otherwise, India’s batting lineup appears to be set, although the lack of left-handed hitters might be exploited by Pakistan. 

Pakistan, on the other hand, is going into this match with a lot of confidence. They recently won a tri-series against New Zealand and Bangladesh, which provided fantastic practice for this huge tournament. Babar Azam and his team were also semi-finalists in the last World Cup, and they would want to go all the way this time. 

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