“Won’t be easy for Pakistan to defeat India in T20 World Cup 2022,” says Shoaib Akhtar: Former legendary Pakistani pacer Shoaib Akhtar reckons unlike the last encounter, where Pakistan got better of India in the T20 World Cup 2021, it will be a rigorous task for the Pakistanis to thrash Indians in the upcoming clash at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.
Team India and Pakistan will square off against each other on October 23, 2022, Sunday at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on the big stage of the ICC T20 World Cup 2022 in Australia.
“India will come up with proper planning this time around. It will not be easy for Pakistan to beat India in T20 WC this time,” Shoaib Akhtar was quoted as saying by Cricket Pakistan.
In the India-Pakistan last meeting, India was defeated by Pakistan convincingly by 10 wickets. The Pakistani pacers exploited the surface and never let Indian batters settle on the surface. Moreover, while chasing the total, the two Pakistani openers had all the answers to the questions asked by Indian bowlers.
Though Shoaib Akhtar shied away from predicting the winner of the upcoming contest, he opined that his countrymen should opt to bowl second on the bouncy Aussie surface to make most of the available help.
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“Predicting match results now is quite difficult but Pakistan should bowl second as [the] pitch in Melbourne offers bounce to fast bowlers,” Akhtar said.
“I believe the crowd will be bigger this time. Around 150,000 fans will watch the match line in Melbourne. Out of which, 70,000 will be Indian supporters,” he concluded.
If the reports are to be believed, the tickets for the India-Pakistan match have already been sold out. Around 90,000 tickets were sold out within five minutes by the fans.
Rohit Sharma and his men will certainly be better prepared against the Men in Green. With Pakistan successfully opening its account against India in the World Cup stage last year, the contest between the two sides has become even more interesting and competitive.
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