India defeated Pakistan comprehensively in the group stage fixture, but they won’t take Pakistan for granted in the Super 4s game, as they know that the Men in Green can be unpredictable and test any team on their day.
That being said, if India play their best cricket, Pakistan won’t be able to beat them, even at their peak performance.
India are undefeated in the tournament and seems to have all bases covered. The batting is firing in all cylinders, while the bowling looks very difficult to get away, with three quality spinners and Jasprit Bumrah to deal with for opposition teams.
There is some doubt about Axar Patel playing against Pakistan as he picked up an injury against Oman, and if he is not fit, India’s strategy of playing three spinners and Jasprit Bumrah as a specialist pacer could take a hit as India don’t have any spin replacement available.
Meanwhile, Pakistan have a lot of issues to deal with. They were embarrassed in the previous clash after Indian players refused to shake hands with them, and their performance in the game was also not something to be proud of.
The biggest concern for Pakistan is their batting, which looks very vulnerable against Indian bowling. If Pakistan needs to have any chance of pulling off an upset against India, the batters need to play out of their skin and get big scores, and there is no other way out for them.