The upcoming edition of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2024 will offer another opportunity to the fans to enjoy the rare encounter between India and Pakistan, both of whom don’t meet each other quite often in International cricket for more than a decade, due to various political reasons.
The India-Pakistan clash will provide another chance to excite the fans and players around the world, as both the arch-rivals meet each other once again on June 09, at the Nassau County International Cricket Stadium, in New York.
The ‘Men in Blue’ looked quite strong in both batting and bowling department of the game, besides showed a classic example of their fielding. On the other hand, the 2009-champions of the tournament are coming into this competition on the back of a 2-0 lose against England in the four-match T20I series.
‘Jee jaan lagaa denge lein inse nahi haarenge’ – Suresh Raina on India-Pakistan rivalry
India have a 6-1 head-to-head record over the Pakistan team in the history of the T20 World Cup, as they got the better of the side during the final of the 2007 T20 World Cup.
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The only time the ‘Green brigade’ came on top in this tournament against India was during the 2021 season, when the former got the better of the latter with 10-wickets in hand during the run-chase, quite comfortably.
In the last edition of the T20 WC in 2022 at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG), it was a Virat Kohli special knock, which was enough to nail the Pakistan in a intense game. Batting first, the opponents posted 159/8 in their allotted 20-overs, with fifties from both Shan Masood and Iftikhar Ahmed.
In reply, India was struggling at the beginning of the chase, as they found themselves limping at 31/4, on the first ball of the seventh over, as Hardik Pandya joined Kohli in the middle. Both shared a match saving partnership of 113-runs for the fifth wicket, as Kohli took charge on the Pakistan bowlers towards the end of the clash. Finally, a nervy single from Ravichandran Ashwin, after quite a lot of drama, pushed them to victory with four-wickets in hand, Virat remained unbeaten on 82-runs in 53 balls, shouldering on six boundaries and four sixes.
Even though India finished their journey in the semi-final against England, with a 10-wicket lose at the Adelaide Oval, the opponents finished the season as the runners-up at the MCG.
Along with the fans, the former players too found themselves quite hard into the momentum of the game. The former India player Suresh Raina put a message for the Rohit Sharma led-India team ahead of the mega clash.
Coming at the jersey launch of the World Championship of Legends’ team India Champions, the left-hand batter feels that Rohit has been brilliant as a leader for India, in making plans, and he has got so much respect too in the dressing room.
‘Our team looked very good. They (India) are going to play against Pakistan in New York. Rohit led the team really, really well. He has been amazing with his planning and he is getting a lot of respect from the dressing room. We have a lot of options. We have two all-rounders,” Raina spoke during the jersey launch function.
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He also shed light on the importance of the game, as the players too get charged up to do well, particularly in this affair.
‘We played a lot of matches, Yuvraj Singh, RP (Singh), Rahul, against Pakistan. When you are representing your country, you try to give your best. I am really looking forward to playing against Pakistan in England. We played a lot of matches together,” Veteran observed.
The 37-year-old also said that whenever they put on the India colour on the chest, a different energy comes into their body.
‘We have retired from the sport, but not from the heart. When you see the tri-colour, you feel ‘Jee Jaan lagga denge lekin inse nahi harenge. (We will give our all, but can’t afford to lose against them)’- Suresh Raina concluded.