Bangalore: Five years after their bilateral
cricket ties snapped due to the Mumbai
terror attack, India and Pakistan are set to
slug it out in what promises to be a high-
voltage limited-over series starting with
the first Twenty20 international here on
Tuesday.
The two-match T20 and three-match ODI
series has been squeezed in between
India`s ongoing full series against the
England cricket team, which has taken a
break to go home for Christmas and New
Year holidays.
India and Pakistan, which last played a
bilateral series in 2007, squared off in
multi-national events several times after
2008 but for the first time, a Pakistani
cricket team will be hosted for a series
after the attacks.
The Indian team is going through some
testing times as they renew rivalry with
Pakistan since the side has been
struggling for success.
India did well in the T20s against England
after being humiliated in Tests but
bowling remains a persistent headache
for them in all the formats.
The likes of Alex Hales, Michael Lumb and
Eoin Morgan put the Indian attack on
sword during the short T20 series and the
Pakistan batsmen would be looking to
exploit this weakness of the hosts.
Except for a spirited show put up by
Ashok Dinda, none of the Indian bowlers
made an impact on the English batsmen.
Parvinder Awana, Ravichandran Ashwin
and Piyush Chawla have all struggled to
get wickets
This may prompt skipper Mahendra Singh
Dhoni to give a chance to either
Abhimanyu Mithun or Bhuvneshwar
Kumar.
Surprisingly, Yuvraj Singh was the most
successful bowler with six wickets and he
also batted stupendously for India.
India would want the Chandigarh boy to
continue with his good touch against a
very tricky opponent.
Flamboyant Virat Kohli, Suresh Raina,
Rohit Sharma and skipper Dhoni himself
have had some runs under their belts and
they would like to continue in the same
vein against Pakistan.
It will be interesting to see if Dhoni gives
a chance to Ambati Rayudu, considering
his past performances in this format of
the game.
But it will be a tough test for Indian
batsmen against Pakistan`s formidable
pace attack, led by Umar Gul and Sohail
Tanvir.
Not only the pacers but Pakistan have an
extremely good spin attack in the form of
Saeed Ajmal, Shahid Afridi and captain
Mohammad Hafeez to choke the strong
Indian batting.
Afridi`s dwindling form has been a worry
for the Pakistani captain which at times
muzzles the team`s batting prospects.
However, Hafeez has tremendous
confidence in his all round abilities.
Pakistan have landed in India after
making wholesale changes to their
bowling. They have made six changes to
the squad that went to Sri Lanka for the
T20 World Cup.
Fast bowler Junaid Khan, who was
dropped from World T20 squad, has been
included for his ability to do well in the
death overs.
Ahmed Shehzad, Umar Amin and M Irfan
have also made a comeback while Asad
Ali and Zulfiqar Babar are the other
inclusions.
India and Pakistan met last time in the
2012 T20 World Cup which the former
won by eight wickets.
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