T20 World Cup: Mohammad Kaif weighs in on Virat Kohli vs Babar Azam debate ahead of Indo-Pak clash

In Dubai, the stage is set at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium for one of the most awaited clashes of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup, that is India vs Pakistan. The South Asian neighbours will square off on Sunday (October 24) to add a new chapter to the historic and epic rivalry. 

In the cricket world, the Indo-Pak clash is trending everywhere. From England to India, the cricket pundits are having their say on the high-octane clash. As the former Australian opener Matthew Hayden admitted that “nothing matches” the hostile rivalry. On the other hand, former India batter Mohammad Kaif gave his valuable insight on the same, as he talked about the expected result and also weighed in on which team will be under more pressure. 

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If we talk about the stats, they are favouring India as Men in Blue have beaten Pakistan in all of their 12 matches at the T20 and 50-over World Cups. However, the matches between the two are lesser due to the cancellation of bilateral series due to political reasons. Now, they only meet in the multi-nation ICC tournaments. The two teams last met in the 2019 ODI World Cup in England and India last hosted Pakistan in a bilateral series in 2013. 

Apart from the stats, one thing, in particular, has grabbed the attention which is the Virat Kohli vs Babar Azam debate. Talking about the same, Kaif, during an exclusive chat with Zee News English in a Facebook Live session, expressed his thoughts. 

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On being asked about the hype around Azam vs Kohli debate, Kaif said, “Look this Pakistan team is very good, Babar Azam is a very good batter and captain. They have got players who can perform good on their day but I would give my vote to India because the grounds and experience the Indian players have got because of the IPL. They’ve been there (UAE) for quite a long time now so they know the conditions in Dubai better compared to the Pakistan team. IPL is also a very high-pressure tournament so that also counts for India.”

“India vs Pakistan match has that pressure on it on paper, so skills come later after the pressure handling and I think India can handle that pressure well. Look the records are records and they signal that India are the winner as they always defeat Pakistan in the World Cup. But I’m a big fan of the current form of the players, the team which has better form at the moment can win it and in the Indian Team every player is in great form,” kaif added. 

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Pakistan’s form can’t be ignored as they come into the Super 12s contest with 10 wins in a row in the United Arab Emirates. For the team, the skipper himself is in top form with two T20 centuries this year. The in-form Azam believes his team can break the World Cup jinx as commenting on the match, he said, “Definitely we have played a lot of cricket in the UAE. These conditions suit us and we know how to play here. We need to keep things simple in all the departments.”

The Indian captain Kohli, on the other hand, has downplayed the hype as he said “it’s just another game” of cricket. Although, not just the Indo-Pak contest, the entire tournament will be of huge significance for Kohli as he has already announced that he will give up the India Twenty20 captaincy after the World Cup. So the title win will be a high point in his captaincy stint.