When it comes to India versus Pakistani Jaffer, there will be debates about the merits of one team over the other in cricket. The traditional rivals are due for a match on Sunday that may result in another dramatic chapter being added to their history of meetings.
May be Pakistan’s upset failure at the hand of USA did not make them happy but the stakes for this game have just risen and they almost must win it to keep their hopes alive in qualifying from group A as one of two top teams.
The top two teams from each of the four groups will go through to what is called “Super 8s” stage.
On contrary, after bowling out ‘Green Shirts’ for just 96 runs, India won by seven wickets against Ireland. However, this is where anxiety also lies.
This is why the drop-in pitches used at Nassau County International Cricket Stadium located in New York difficult because they are not flat tracks. No team batting first has been able to score a hundred in two matches played here so far.
While South Africa bowled out Sri Lanka for 77 and India bundled out Ireland for 96 runs respectively; therefore former Indian opener Wasim Jaffer said that both India and Pakistan need to select right combination.
India selected Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma as opening batsmen against Ireland meaning Yashasvi Jaiswal had no place while Axar Patel was preferred over Kuldeep Yadav due to his batting skills lower down the order. Furthermore, three specialist pacers – Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj and Arshdeep Singh – were included besides all-rounder Hardik Pandya who bowls seam-up too.
Jaffer stated during Star Sports that he thought that India might play with same playing eleven against Pakistan too.
“Shuru mei lagta that Jaiswal open karenge, lekin shayad woh combination banta nahi hai. Aap chahte hain Axar bhi khelein. Axar ki ballebazi shayad zaruri hoti hai (at the start it seemed Jaiswal will open but that combination doesn’t work because you want Axar to play and his batting is important),” said Jaffer.
It was also thought before the tournament began that Kuldeep would be in as a specialist spinner. However, with the fickle nature of wickets and tough batting conditions prevailing in New York, players having all round skills like Hardik, Ravindra Jadeja and Axar have been preferred.
“Also, you want Kuldeep to play, but according to me on this surface we need Axar’s batting so here we will see fast bowlers being used more. So Kuldeep won’t have much effect. It will be the fast bowlers doing the damage,” reckoned Jaffer.
“Maybe the pitch gets a little better, it will continue to be rolled maybe. So far not even a total of 100 has been scored on this pitch, but maybe for the big India vs Pakistan encounter, it’s a little better pitch and we see better cricket. But I feel fast bowlers will take more wickets,” Jaffer concluded.
