Match between India and Pakistan always provides plenty of exciting images that stick in mind for long. One team has the tradition of ferocious pace attack while the other is known for producing mind blowing batters. The battle between Pakistani pace and Indian willow will be seen again today when they will lock horn in the Micromax Asia Cup T20 2016 at the Sher-e Bangla National Cricket Stadium at 7:30pm.
It will be the seventh time that Pakistan take on India in T20. In earlier six times India won four, Pakistan won one and one match was tied. Tough statistics favour India, actually none can measure the spiciness of the match through statistics.
At the pre-match conference Indian batter Rohit Sharma also accepted the pace strength of Pakistan but at the same time he also informed they are focusing on their own strength.
He said, "They (Pakistan) have a formidable bowling attack no doubt, but we would want to concentrate more on our strengths and prepare our plans accordingly. Our strength is batting and depending on the wicket we will have to focus on that."
"Every team has its own specialties. They have good left-arm seamers in their armoury while our bowling attack is more potent and has more variety in it," added Rohit.
On the others hand, about Indian batters Afridi said, "Indian batsmen usually play the spinner very well and they have in-form players in their squad as they have come here playing some good cricket."
Though Afridi acknowledged that India have good batting attack, he also mentioned that their batters are good as well coming from PSL.
He said, "They (India) will try to score heavily and we also have strength in our batting because they are looking good coming from the PSL. We just hope we don't repeat our mistakes and stick to our basics."
To talked about their won strength the Pakistan skipper said, "I think apart from me there is Mohammad Nawaz who performed really well in the domestic cricket as well as in the PSL. The fast bowlers are also in good shape whether it is Mohammad Amir, Wahab[Riaz] or Irfan. I know their batting is strong but we also have a formidable bowling attack. I hope the result will be good for us."
Returning to the cricket it will be the first match for Pakistan pacer Mohammad Amir against India. And naturally there will be a hype to see how Indian batters deal with Amir. But Rohit said they are not thinking about any one specially.
He said, "I have played him (Amir) before. We are preparing for each individual and not just about one. We have to be well prepared and we are up for the challenge. We are not thinking too far ahead and doing everything possible we can to win games."
It will be the first T20 match between India and Pakistan in last two years where India had a good past record against Pakistan.
But Pakistan skipper informed they are not thinking about the past as he said, " I am not thinking what we have done against India in the past. Because, I don't live in past. We wanted to play the game according to our team plan"
Regarding the pace attack plan Afridi said, "Our fast bowlers will try to utilise the opening six overs and try to remove their batsmen as that is considered to be their strength."
However, Pakistan pace will knock Indian batters down or Indian batters will whirl their willow, to know that all have to wait till the end of the match. But it is confirmed that the battle between pace and willow will snatch the concentration of million pairs of eyes today.