Finally, the big India vs Pakistan match of the Cricket World Cup 2023 is here. Since the schedule for the tournament was announced, there was huge anticipation of this event in international cricket. This is the ‘Mother of all Battles’ in cricket and rightly so. These days the only time the cricket teams from India and Pakistan play against each other is in the ICC or ACC tournaments.

Let’s be honest about it, this is the most highly anticipated and most watched cricket match in the world for this game belongs to more than a billion cricket-crazy fans, who add so much to the historic clash. There is so much mystique and excitement for the most exciting cricket match on the planet.

Fair to say, like in the past, the upcoming clash will again be one between the Indian batting versus Pakistan’s pace attack. The Indian top-order is among the best in the world with the stars like Rohit Sharma, Ishan Kishan, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul, Hardik Pandya, occupying their spots in that order. The batting looks quite strong with Rohit Sharma coming fresh off a brilliant hundred against Afghanistan. Virat Kohli has already smashed two fifties in the tournament. KL Rahul has had good time with the bat, taking India to successful finishes in chases of late and Shreyas Iyer too got the much-needed century in the ODI vs Australia recently. That top and middle order of India is just so exciting and powerful. The fact that the World Cup is being played in India gives the hosts some sort of advantage too as they know the conditions and pitches better than others.

Pakistan, to me, are a great side, peaking at the right time too in the tournament but they will start this match as underdogs. The green shirts did not have a great build-up to the World Cup, not making it to the Asia Cup final and then losing the World No 1 spot as well. But with the wins vs Netherlands and Sri Lanka, they have collected important four points, with some of their playing 11 issues sorted while others remain still to be solved. But against India, who have been playing excellent cricket in India, they may have to work a bit harder for the win.

India have kickstarted their tournament by beating the five-time champions Australia and displayed a dominant game against the Afghans. Having said that, the pressure of a Pakistan match will be there. India have never lost to Pakistan in an ODI World Cup match, and they will surely be on top of the minds of the Indians.

For Pakistan, Babar Azam’s form is a big of a concern along with the likes of Fakhar Zaman and Imam-ul Haq. The good thing is that Abdullah Shafique, Mohammad Rizwan and Saud Shakeel boosted the confidence of the management with good shows in the first two matches. Pakistan’s middle-order batting has been top-notch. If Babar can participate too here, it would help Pakistan a great deal in Ahmedabad match.

Coming to Pakistan’s bowling, I think they are going to stick with the trio of pacers – Shaheen Afridi, Haris Rauf and Hasan Ali. Babar will hope that Shaheen finds his form soon as he has not looked at his best in quite some time with the white ball. It w ould be interesting to see what spin options they choose. Shadab Khan, despite not being among wickets, will make the cut while the Men in Green may pick one between Mohammad Nawaz and leg-spinner Usama Mir.

The only change India might do could be replacing Shardul Thakur with R Ashwin. However, that would be not because of lack of form but the change in conditions. If the pitch has something for the fast bowlers, expect Thakur to be there. Mohammed Siraj ran out of gas vs Afghanistan but from India’s standpoint, let’s hope that was just a one-off instance of the paceman losing his fire in the tournament.

On a sidenote, I hope the Pakistani fans too get to the stadium, the world’s biggest in Ahmedabad. Here’s hoping the visas are granted soon to the Pakistanis and the fans from both countries enjoy the absolute spectacle that an India vs Pakistan match is. It won’t be wrong to say that the heartbeat of cricket is in India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh where the fans are mad about the sport and their heroes. The World Cup deserves the fans to have the best of times. Like I said earlier, these days, an IND vs PAK affair is a rarity and let’s hope that both the sides display a great spirit of cricket in a match which goes down the wire.