Big picture: Pakistan’s fight for survival
It creates a weird dynamic between the two sets of cricketers. Despite all the machinations, the cricketers respect each other and are civil to each other to the extent that it annoys those who want their own hatred to reflect on the field. The edge is also perhaps because of the gulf between the two sides.
More than the four-year pattern of wins, Pakistan will look at the conditions with some hope. The slow pitches in Dubai, recently used for the ILT20, call for an old-fashioned game that could neutralise to an extent India’s big-hitting advantage in the middle overs. With no dew – 1pm starts anyway leave little room for dew to play a role – the toss on these pitches is a big advantage. In similar conditions last year, Sri Lanka got the better of India in a bilateral series at home with an unheralded spin attack. They won the tosses, batted first and got mid-200s in each game. Pakistan will hope for a repeat, but India will also lean on the lessons they have learnt.
Pakistan LLWLW (last five completed ODIs, most recent first)
India WWWWL
In the spotlight: Virat Kohli and Salman Agha
Team news: Imam or Usman in place of Fakhar?
Pakistan (possible): 1 Imam-ul-Haq, 2 Babar Azam, 3 Saud Shakeel, 4 Mohammad Rizwan (capt, wk), 5 Salman Agha, 6 Tayyab Tahir, 7 Khushdil Shah, 8 Shaheen Shah Afridi, 9 Naseem Shah, 10 Haris Rauf, 11 Abrar Ahmed
There’s no reason for India to make any changes to their combination or personnel.
India (possible): 1 Rohit Sharma (capt), 2 Shubman Gill, 3 Virat Kohli, 4 Shreyas Iyer, 5 KL Rahul (wk), 6 Hardik Pandya, 7 Ravindra Jadeja, 8 Axar Patel, 9 Harshit Rana, 10 Mohammed Shami, 11 Kuldeep Yadav
India wanted to field first in their opening game against Bangladesh but given the way the pitch slowed up and how there was no dew, don’t expect any side to make that mistake in Dubai again. Expect teams to make the most of powerplay before the middle overs tie them up. It is hard to see the trend changing on pitches that were recently used for a whole T20 tournament.