The highly-anticipated clash between Pakistan and India at 2012 Asia Cup

The highly-anticipated clash between Pakistan and India at 2012 Asia Cup

Pakistan and India may be putting in an effort to somehow bring their people closer to each other hearts, but the one place where we definitely do not want love to intervene is cricket. When the Pakistani cricket team meets the Indian cricket team, the one
thing that makes the encounter extremely intense and adrenaline-pumping is the rivalry between the two teams.

While I am not at all asserting that the 22 men in the cricket ground should be going at each other’s throats, I would surely love to see the pacers bowling intimidating bouncers to the likes of Sachin Tendulkar and Virat Kohli, or a bit of heated exchange of words between the bowlers and batsmen.

Similarly, it would be interesting to see Sarfraz Ahmad making the Indian batsmen lose focus through his non-stop ranting from behind the stumps.

The clash between the men in green and men in blue is not just a game of cricket, its war. Neither of the two nations is ever ready to settle for anything less than victory, something that is brought to light via media.

The highly anticipated Semi-final between the two countries in ICC World Cup 2011 may have gone in India’s favour, but the results are expected to be different this time as the two countries will take each other on in less than two weeks during the Asia
Cup in Bangladesh.

With the senior players in the Indian team exhibiting a rusty performance and the only real stand being made by Kohli, it seems that the scales are tipping in the favour of the men in green. Pakistan has been on a rampage for the last year and a half, save
for the One Day and T-20 series against England.

Pakistan may find themselves at a disadvantage due to their weak batting, though the inclusion of Azhar Ali along with talents such as Asad Shafiq and Umar Akmal in their line-up has definitely given the team’s batting a bit of an uplift. The presence of
Boom Boom Afridi and cool minded middle-order batsmen, namely Younis Khan and Misbah-ul-Haq, may end up making a difference as well.

Bowlers such as Saeed Ajmal are bound to challenge the Indian players, especially with the Bangladesh pitches being spin-friendly. Shahid Afridi and Muhammad Hafeez are also expected to make it hard for the Indian team to breathe. Gul will be spearheading
the Pakistan bowling attack once again and is most likely to get early break through if the weak forms of Gautam Gambhir and Tendulkar continue in Asia Cup. Anyone hoping to see Tendulkar score his landmark century against Pakistan is most likely to face
disappointment considering the firepower that the men in green have.

India, on the other hand, does not pose any serious threat as far as their bowling is concerned, with the exception of Zaheer Khan of course. While a few new faces have been added to the team due to the pace they can generate, they are yet to reach the level that has been attained by Gul over the last
few years.

The Pakistani public would be hoping to not only defeat the Indian cricket team in the group stage but would also be hoping to get an opportunity to get the better of the men in blue in the Final.

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Posted by Muhammad Qasim Hassan on Mar 8 2012. Filed under Opinion, Pakistan. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry