Ladies and Gentlemen, this is 16 June – the day the cricketing world has been waiting for. There is a buzz in the air. Opinions of cricket experts and fans are themselves divided. There is one sect that is asking if there is indeed any need to preview a match which is in itself is a hyperbole in some sense and further hype up the scenario.

The question seems valid based on the following grounds:

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a) On paper there is going to be no contest. If we look at man to man individual capabilities, capacities, talent, record, form and their performances in the biggest stage, India clearly start as favourites outweighing their opposition in all spheres of the game.

b) India and Pakistan have never produced a game in the World Cup stage that has gone to the final over, leave aside the final ball. In most of these matches, one could have sensed the winner a lot before the winner was officially declared.

c) The game might not even happen at all with the weather forecast in Manchester, where the two teams are scheduled to meet turning towards the worst with every passing hour.

However, here is the other side to these arguments. There is no way one can avoid the much-anticipated clash nor are there suffice reasons to do so. And although this intense rivalry might not have produced a contest of the quality that one might expect with the intensity, there are so many fans, people and emotions involved with the match that cricket today cannot afford to turn away from the reality. There is no doubt that more people are going to tune into the television today to watch India take on Pakistan than the final itself and so, why not talk about what’s already in the air?

Steve Elworthy, former South African cricketer and an administrator with England Cricket Board later revealed that the International Cricket Council (ICC) had received as many as 4 lakh requests for tickets which is four times the capacity crowd of Wembley.

India played their first match of the tournament after everyone else had started their campaign but that didn’t mean that India had “easy” opponents or games – they faced South Africa, Australia and New Zealand in their first three and while the last one was washed out against the Kiwis, wins in their two matches against Australia and South Africa, which were absolutely clinical performances, have done their favourites tag no harm.

Perhaps this is the first time in the cricketing history of India and Pakistan that India has an equally skilled pace bowling unit, if not better. Now combine that pace attack with the spin duo of Yuzvendra Chahal and Kuldeep Yadav and what one gets is a complete bowling attack, ready for any conditions and any opponent. This attack will be up against a Pakistan team which still doesn’t know what actually can be their best Playing XI.

Rohit Sharma in splendid form will be a prized wicket and Mohammad Amir will hope to pick his wicket like he did in the famous Champions Trophy final. Rohit versus Amir will be the battle to watch out for.

One cannot deny that Pakistan are an unpredictable team and perhaps Virat Kohli and India’s think tank would have done their homework to make note of that. One can easily point out that Pakistan have lost their last 12 of the 13 completed One Day Internationals. However, it is worth noting that the win came when it mattered the most for them – against tournament favourites England.

Pakistan’s Babar Azam will be in the spotlight when Pak takes the ground and will need to produce an innings of substance here to help his team win the contest.

Moreover, the top three of the Pakistan batting have an average in excess of 50. And although Pakistan does not have a threatening pace attack of its glory days, an in-form Mohammed Amir and a determined Wahab Riaz can be enough on their day to bundle out the opposition.

Without attaching any lens and after being as objective as humanly possible, the gulf between India and Pakistan is immense. However if it gets to the nerves in the end, which it inevitably will because of the historical records (India having lost to Pakistan in Champions Trophy final while Pakistan never managing to go past India in a World Cup stage), the drama and the very fact of playing against an arch rival, the team that handles the occasion and emotions better will win.

If the weather gods are merciful and allow for a game, let alone a full game, the World Cup may finally wake up to the spark and charisma which was “washed out” in the couple of weeks so far.

The match is scheduled to begin from 3pm (IST) onwards.

Venue: Old Trafford, Manchester

Squads

India: Virat Kohli (c), Jasprit Bumrah, Yuzvendra Chahal, MS Dhoni (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Kedar Jadhav, Dinesh Karthik, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Hardik Pandya, KL Rahul, Mohammed Shami, Vijay Shankar, Rohit Sharma, Kuldeep Yadav

Pakistan: Sarfaraz Ahmed (c/wk), Asif Ali, Hasan Ali, Shaheen Afridi, Mohammad Amir, Babar Azam, Mohammad Hafeez, Mohammad Hasnain, Imam-ul-Haq, Shadab Khan, Shoaib Malik, Wahab Riaz, Haris Sohail, Imad Wasim, Fakhar Zaman