Come up Pakistan: Put a jewel, and lift the T20 WC crown
Iqbal Jamil
MELBOURNE: Pakistan 30 years back won, in a different format of 50 over match, world cup trophy against all odds. Except the format of the game the story interestingly is the same, Pakistan reached the final after turbulent journey as it did in 1992 with the same opponent and same ground. Interestingly most of the players including skipper Babar Azam was not even born in 1992. All stage is set for Pakistan to repeat the history as the team is in high spirit and looking in great firm.
Pakistan has the momentum and the team clicked and made a comeback winning all the last 3 matches to reach the final. If England outclassed India in the Semi Final by 10 wickets, Pakistan was in no way behind as they beat New Zealand comprehensively by 7 wickets.
England’s strong, aggressive and long batting line up will face one of the best fast bowling attacks of Pak.
With Babar Azam regaining his form and Shaheen Shah Afridi looking fully fit, it won’t be an easy task for England to sail comfortably in the final to be played in Melbourne on Sunday.
Pakistan’s only worry is to stop Alex Hales and Jos Buttler onslaughts in the power play
Both sides are confident after the victories in the semi-finals, but final will be a different game and the team who holds the pressure will have better chance to win. Jos Buttler has said that our batting strength has depth and can be gauged that Adil Rasheed is on no 11. Mattew Hayden mentor of Pak team has said that we have 7 bowlers in the side which can challenge any batting.
Both the teams have remained champions once, Pak in 2009 and England in 2010. No change in Pakistan team is expected from the semi-final line up however Mark Wood and David Malan according to media reports have recovered and can be included in the final line up. Predictions of rain on Sunday and also on reserved day are agitating the minds of the fans. A full match without interruption will be ideal but who knows what is the nature’s call, yet to be seen, until then fingers crossed.