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Dhaka: India and Pakistan will renew cricket's most bitter rivalry this week after a two-year gap when they face off in the Asia Cup, a contest for regional supremacy which is also a final rehearsal for the World T20.
India and Pakistan Asia Cup 2016 encounter at the Sher-e-Bangla Stadium in Mirpur on February 27 centred on Pakistan’s fast men and India’s top-order batsmen.
Local supporters will be looking to see if Bangladesh's sharp improvement in 50-over cricket will translate into an upturn in their performances in the shortest form of the game, with the World T20 in India only weeks ago.
Bu most eyes will be on Saturday's glamour tie when India and Pakistan take to the field together for the first time since the last World T20 in 2014.
India-Pakistan showdowns usually draw hundreds of millions of television viewers, making it the biggest box office attraction in the sport.
But diplomatic tensions have meant that the two teams have not played any bilateral series for more than three years and their rivalry is therefore restricted to multi-national tournaments.
Pakistan, furious that India has rebuffed repeated pleas to play a bilateral series at a neutral venue, will be desperate to cause an upset against their giant neighbour.
With the reigning champions Sri Lanka going through a rebuilding phase, most pundits expect India to cement their position at the top of the T20 world rankings ahead of their staging of the format's premier tournament.
India has an excellent lineup, starring Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan at the top, Virat Kohli and Suresh Raina to follow, and then Yuvraj Singh and captain Dhoni.
If all else fails, there’s Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja and R Ashwin lower down to prop things up, but recent history suggests it won’t come to that.
Pakistan, meanwhile, has a five-man pace department, bowlers of such ability that Shahid Afridi would be hard-pressed to decide who to leave out.
The last time it played a Twenty20 International, in Wellington, Anwar Ali, Mohammad Amir and Wahab Riaz handled the pace responsibilities. Umar Gul played the game before that, but he isn’t in the mix here.
Instead, there is Mohammad Irfan, who looked in fine fettle at training the day before the match, and Mohammad Sami, a late replacement for the injured Rumman Raees. If he gets on the field, Sami will be playing his first game for Pakistan since May 2015, when he toured Zimbabwe with the limited-overs team.
Teams from
India: MS Dhoni (capt and wk), R Ashwin, Jasprit Bumrah, Shikhar Dhawan, Harbhajan Singh, Ravindra Jadeja, Virat Kohli, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Pawan Negi, Ashish Nehra, Hardik Pandya, Parthiv Patel (wk), Ajinkya Rahane, Suresh Raina, Rohit Sharma, Yuvraj Singh.
Pakistan: Shahid Afridi (capt), Anwar Ali, Iftikhar Ahmed, Imad Wasim, Khurram Manzoor, Mohammad Amir, Mohammad Hafeez, Mohammad Irfan, Mohammad Nawaz, Mohammad Sami, Sarfraz Ahmed (wk), Sharjeel Khan, Shoaib Malik, Umar Akmal, Wahab Riaz.
Head to head
India and Pakistan have played six T20 international, India won five (one with bowl out) and Pakistan won one.
Match facts
Saturday February 27, 2016 (day/night)
Start time 1930 local (1330 GMT, 7pm IST, 1830 Pak)
