Pakistan will have to overcome an opposition with better personnel, and with their own prep having been hit

Big picture

It’s worth acknowledging the elephant in the room: a Pakistan win tomorrow would be good for cricket. The longer India’s streak continues, the weaker this fixture’s claim to being an elite, top-tier contest becomes. An India-Pakistan contest that no longer commands the same prestige cannot be good for a sport that desperately needs this rivalry to deliver every chance it gets because – to acknowledge the second elephant in this rather overcrowded room – these games don’t come around as often as they should. The reasons for that are not cricketing, but it’s the sport that bears the brunt of it.

Worryingly, games between these sides at ICC tournament level of late haven’t produced engaging, high-quality cricket for the best part of the last decade. The contest has owed its jeopardy for the most part to the historical rivalry between the Indian and Pakistan camps – on and off the field – rather than to finely poised matches between two evenly matched sides. Since the 2011 ODI World Cup semifinal, five World Cup games between these two sides have all produced comprehensive Indian wins, by eight wickets, seven wickets, 76 runs, six wickets and 89 runs respectively. India pulled ahead early in all those games, and stayed there until Pakistan were eventually ground out.

For India, there seems to be little to worry about. Their two warm-up games against England and Australia tells the story of a side in complete control of their preparations, settled despite the various combinations and personnel they can choose to deploy on any given day. The second half of IPL 2021 concluded last week in the UAE; India could scarcely have enjoyed a better lead-up to the tournament. Their T20 record against Pakistan reads seven wins in eight games. On paper, there’s little to worry them, and for all of the drama and theatre of an India-Pakistan fixture, no World Cup game has ever been quite as predictable as this.

Form guide

India: LLWWW (last five completed matches, most recent first)
Pakistan: WLLWW

In the spotlight

KL Rahul has mastered the art of getting runs in T20 cricket, but over the past couple of years, the question that has dogged him is whether he has been getting them at the optimum pace. Rahul said at the end of IPL 2021 that he didn’t always bat “the way he wanted to” with Punjab Kings because the team dynamics dictated something else. He ended IPL 2021 with a breaking-the-shackles 98* off 42, and in the warm-ups, he’s hit 51 off 24 and 39 off 31. Will India’s greater depth free Rahul up to be a no-inhibitions T20 batter? It’ll be interesting to see.