Pakistan fast bowler Mohammad Amir is confident that his team can beat India on Sunday. Both India and Pakistan are gearing up for the much hyped fixture at Old Trafford. However, India and Pakistan had different form going into the match.
With across 1.5 billion expected to watch the game, pressure will quite high for players on both the teams. However, India are playing at different level to other teams at the moment. They have quite rightly been tagged as title favorites alongside hosts England.
In their matches against South Africa and Australia, India hardly put a step wrong. They were dominant with their overall cricket and looked almost invincible at times. On the other hand, Pakistan had a pretty mixed tournament so far.
After getting demolished by West Indies in their opening match, Pakistan came back strongly against England. Their pacers carried the team on their shoulders so far, but their batting remains a week.
Pakistan failed to build on their win, after 41 run loss to Australia on Wednesday. But the team can take lot of positives in their lower order batting against Australia. Hasan Ali and Wahab Ali were the unlikely heroes that showed up with the bat. However, despite their massive contributions, Pakistan lost the game by 41 runs.
Mohammed Amir believes their batting depth could be a major factor going on.
The pressure is always high for India Pakistan games. But Pakistan can take a lot of heart from the way they fought hard against Australia.
“All games are pressure games in the World Cup, same for India. We’ll have to come with a positive mindset against India. We have to win every game now and we’ll try our best,” Amir said to Pakpassion.
“Definitely, we can beat India. Today also our batting took the game deep. If we’re a bit more mentally strong, insha’Allah we will win,” he added.
But the major worry is the lack of big knocks from top four. The team had suffered tremendously due to their batting let downs. In order to counter strong Indian team, Pakistan top order need to click together.
But even then the task can be too much for them on Sunday. The atmosphere will be upbeat at Manchester. However, considering the way Pakistan plays on their day, they can never be ruled out of this fixture.
They stunned India in the Champions Trophy final in 2017. However, World Cup has been India’s territory against Pakistan. The Men in Blue already won all six games that were played between two sides.