Weather has been playing spoilsport at the ICC Cricket World Cup 2019. So far, four matches have been washed out while the rain has interrupted play in quite a few matches.
India’s third match of the competition against New Zealand was abandoned without a ball being bowled at Nottingham on Thursday.
Fans are presently watching out for the climate in Manchester, the seat of India’s next match against arch-rivals Pakistan which will be played on Sunday.
The International Cricket Council (ICC) has been receiving a lot of criticism for the poor scheduling and absence of reserve days for the group stage matches and on the off chance that the India-Pakistan clash is washed out, one can be almost certain that many eyebrows will be raised towards the World Cricket administering body.
Whenever the two sides have met, it has always been a high voltage match and things will be the same on Sunday as can be sensed from the build-up and hype.
In any case, it is not very happy news for cricket lovers and fans of either of the cricketing nation.
As per the weather forecasting website, Accuweather, spotty showers are to take place between 12 pm and 1 pm (local time). It is worth noting here that the match is scheduled to begin at 10:30 am (local time).
It was further predicted that the conditions will remain overcast throughout the day with the temperature hovering around 17 degrees Celsius.
The reports additionally state that it has rained in Manchester on Friday with Saturday being somewhat better.
In spite of the fact that the English climate is known to be fickle, fans will trust that downpours remain away for India and Pakistan to have an entire 50-over match.
On the field though, India enjoys a perfect record over Pakistan, having beaten them in all their previous World Cup outings. While India will look to maintain their record, Pakistan will look to make it 1-6.
If the rain stays away, it will be one amazing Sunday for all the Cricket fanatics around the World.
The action begins from 3 pm (IST) onwards.
Squads
India: Virat Kohli(c), Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, MS Dhoni (wk), Kedar Jadhav, Hardik Pandya, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, Vijay Shankar, Dinesh Karthik (wk), KL Rahul, Ravindra Jadeja.
Pakistan: Shoaib Malik, Mohammad Hafeez, Sarfaraz Ahmed (c & wk), Wahab Riaz, Mohammad Amir, Haris Sohail,Babar Azam, Imam-ul-Haq, Asif Ali, Imad Wasim, Fakhar Zaman, Shadab Khan, Hasan Ali, Shaheen Afridi, Mohammad Hasnain