Sad end to an era as the French star's final European act goes against the script as the German underdogs fashion out victory
sports2 hours ago
While every India and Pakistan cricket lover would like to see the two teams in the final at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, let's not forget that both countries have to cross two major hurdles in New Zealand and England respectively.
Although England haven’t really fired on all cylinders yet, they are not to be taken lightly.
England have a very formidable opening attack in Mark Wood and Chris Woakes, followed by Ben Stokes who is one of the finest all-rounders around and an excellent spin combination of Moeen Ali, Adil Rashid and Liam Livingstone.
All their bowlers will have meticulous plans against Indian batsmen including the mercurial in form super slogger Suryakumar Yadav.
Both teams are strong in batting, bowling and fielding, they’re both strong in the bowling department.
They will exploit the bouncy conditions and will almost certainly bowl according to their field placements.
Of course, India have still got to be the favourites with their superior array of stroke players and all-round capabilities.
But having said that, I would prefer to see Yuzvendra Chahal instead of Ravichandran Ashwin in the spin department and hope Rishabh Pant gets the nod ahead of Dinesh Karthik.
In the first semifinal, Pakistan again will have to watch out for New Zealand's lethal opening attack of Trent Boult and Tim Southee and the ever-improving spin duo of Mitchell Santner and Ish Sodhi.
All being well, I would still put India and Pakistan to win their respective semifinals against England and New Zealand to make our Asian dream true of having an Indian-Pakistan final.
Farokh Engineer is a former Indian wicketkeeper-batsman
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