On a beautiful, overcast Sunday morning, India and Pakistan will be up against one another at Old Trafford Cricket arena in Manchester on Sunday to reignite arguably the greatest rivalry of the tournament.

Do you think that the hype around the India-Pak match is too much?  Indeed, no. As per Steve Elworthy, former South African Cricketer and an administrator with England Cricket Board, the International Cricket Council (ICC) had received as many as 4 lakh requests for tickets which is four times the capacity crowd of Wembley.

If such a contest is not talked about then what else!

It wouldn’t be an understatement to state that Pakistan are one of the most unpredictable sides in the tournament. They were dazed in their first game by West Indies in what was a batting breakdown. However, Pakistan returned to deliver a splendid performance to topple World Cup 2019 favourites England to break their 12-match losing streak in ODIs.

In any case, they were back to their unpredictable best when they lost to Australia by 41 runs.

India remain unbeaten in the tournament so far.

Pitch and Weather

The pitch seems a belter, which means the bowlers should not anticipate much from it. There isn’t a tinge of green and the batsmen would hope to get their best scores here. However, the overcast conditions might just give a bit of assistance to the seamers.

Certain showers are expected during the later stages of the game and fans will hope that those are just “passing showers “.

Result Prediction

The World Cup history is on the side of the Men in Blue as India have not lost a game against Pakistan in the World Cup stage.

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.

Playing XIs

Going with the pitch conditions, India hasn’t drafted in Mohammad Shami and only Vijay Shankar has come in place of Shikhar Dhawan.

While Shadab Khan of Pakistan who was made to sit out against Australia, has been relied upon to return in the Pakistan side.

Shikhar Dhawan was not available for selection post his thumb injury and KL Rahul is expected to open with Rohit in his absence.

India: 1 Rohit Sharma, 2 KL Rahul, 3 Virat Kohli (capt), 4 Vijay Shankar, 5 MS Dhoni (wk), 6 Kedhar Jadhav, 7 Hardik Pandya, 8 Bhuvneshwar Kumar, 9 Kuldeep Yadav, 10 Yuzvendra Chahal, 11 Jasprit Bumrah

Pakistan: 1 Imam-ul-Haq, 2 Fakhar Zaman, 3 Babar Azam, 4 Mohammad Hafeez, 5 Sarfaraz Ahmed (capt & wk), 6 Shoaib Malik, 7 Imad Wasim, 8 Shadab Khan, 9 Wahab Riaz, 10 Hasan Ali 11 Mohammad Amir