All eyes are on the upcoming mouth-watering clash between arch-rivals India and Pakistan in the ICC T20 World Cup 2024. The much-awaited match is scheduled to take place on June 9 in New York.
It will be the first meeting between the two teams this year. They had last faced each other in the ODI World Cup last year with India inflicting a humiliating defeat on Pakistan. The forthcoming game is also the first T20I match between the two teams since the classic game between them at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in the 2022 T20 World Cup.
A monumental knock from Virat Kohli had helped India pull off a miraculous win against Pakistan a couple of years ago and the Men in Blue will be hoping for a similar result in the forthcoming game as well. And ahead of the much-awaited game, former India skipper Sourav Ganguly has fired a timely warning to Rohit Sharma and his teammates.
The legendary cricketer began by highlighting India’s superior head-to-head record against Pakistan before saying that the latter are a dangerous T20 outfit as he urged the Men in Blue to remain cautious. At the same time, the former cricketer also said that India should be playing with more freedom in order to get a good result.
“Our record against Pakistan has been very, very good over a long period of time. In the T20 format, probably Pakistan is more dangerous compared to 50- overs (format). We beat them in Ahmedabad when they came to India and we beat them easily.
“India is superior and if they play well, if they play freely and I keep saying the word ‘freely’ all the time because (in) the last World Cup in Australia, I don’t think we played freely,” Sourav Ganguly was quoted as saying by the Times of India.
“Just put all the cobwebs behind. Don’t worry about winning or losing. Don’t think about winning the World Cup. Just go and play every game,” he added.
Sourav Ganguly on India’s chances:
Sourav Ganguly also shared his views on India’s prospects in the T20 World Cup. India have not won the trophy since MS Dhoni led the team to victory in the inaugural T20 World Cup way back in 2007. And Sourav Ganguly believes the current team has a good chance of ending the long wait for the World Cup trophy.
“India have very good chances in the World Cup. India will have to play like a T20 team. There is enormous talent,” he said.
” … play without fear and just keep hitting. There is enormous talent, (this is) a team which has (Virat) Kohli, Rohit (Sharma), Surya (Suryakumar Yadav), (Rishabh) Pant, (Shivam) Dubey, (Hardik) Pandya, (Ravindra) Jadeja, Axar (Patel), (Jasprit) Bumrah, Sanju (Samson).
“That’s why I say everyone is capable of winning it for India and the only way they will do it is (if they) just play with freedom. Play with that extra batsman and hit from the first ball, hit till you have to defend (and) play like the last ball,” he added.
Ahead of facing Pakistan, India will be opening their campaign on June 5 by taking on Ireland.
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