India Playing XI vs Pakistan: Sunil Gavaskar picks his Playing XI for MEGA India vs Pakistan clash, Check how can Rishabh Pant and Dinesh Karthik play together, Check OUT

India Playing XI vs Pakistan: All roads will lead to the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) this Sunday when India will take on Pakistan in the ultimate cricketing clash. In what is billed as a mouthwatering match, both teams will begin their Super 12 campaigns at the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2022. Before the toss, a number of aspects of the game are up for discussion including Men in Blue’s great headache to finalise a name for the wicket-keeper’s spot in the playing XI. The battle for this position in the team is between Rishabh Pant and Dinesh Karthik. Amid this debate, Indian legend Sunil Gavaskar has also shared his thoughts on the Indian team playing XI which is to take on Pakistan in Australia. Follow T20 World Cup live updates on Insidesport.IN

India Playing XI vs Pakistan: Sunil Gavaskar picks his Playing XI for MEGA India vs Pakistan clash, Check how can Rishabh Pant and Dinesh Karthik play together, Check OUT

Also Read: India vs Pakistan: Mohammad Shami, Shaheen Afridi train together before injury return ahead of ICC T20 World Cup clash (insidesport.in)

After nearly one year, Rohit Sharma and company will take on Babar Azam’s Pakistan to reignite the age-old rivalry. India will square off against Pakistan in their tournament opener of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup on October 23, 2022. Both teams will be looking to get their World Cup campaign off to a flyer and with the excitement around the game building, fans and experts are deliberating tactics, line-ups, and bowling permutations that India and Pakistan can deploy in the game.

Perth ✔️
Brisbane ✔️
Preparations ✔️

We are now in Melbourne for our first game! #TeamIndia #T20WorldCup pic.twitter.com/SRhKYEnCdn

— BCCI (@BCCI) October 20, 2022

India Playing XI vs Pakistan: Sunil Gavaskar picks his Playing XI for MEGA India vs Pakistan clash, Check how can Rishabh Pant and Dinesh Karthik play together, Check OUT

Among those experts, one such name is of India batting great Sunil Gavaskar. The 73-year-old spoke about how India’s middle order is going to line-up with both wicket-keepers Dinesh Karthik and Rishabh Pant in good touch and vying for a spot in the starting 11.

Speaking on Star Sports show ‘Cricket Live’, Sunil Gavaskar said, “It’s just that maybe, if they decide to go with six bowlers, with Hardik Pandya being the sixth bowler, then he (Pant) may not be able to find a place, but if they decide to go with Hardik Pandya as a fifth bowler, then Rishabh Pant has an opportunity to bat at number six and Karthik maybe at number seven, followed by the four bowlers. So, that could well happen, we just have to wait and see. They would certainly want a left hander in the middle, but looking at the top four, who are in such good form, you sometimes say to yourself, ‘How many overs Rishabh Pant is going to get in? Is he going to get three or four overs? And for three or four overs, is Karthik or Rishabh better?’ So, these are all the situations they will look at and they’ll take a call on this.”

India will be looking to avenge their loss against Pakistan from the previous edition of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup and end the wait of winning the coveted trophy and getting the World Cup back to India after 15 years.

Mohammad Shami and Shaheen Afridi

India Playing XI vs Pakistan: Sunil Gavaskar picks his Playing XI for MEGA India vs Pakistan clash, Check how can Rishabh Pant and Dinesh Karthik play together, Check OUT

Indian batting great further spoke on Shaheen Afridi’s return to the Pakistan squad after injury and how significantly the Pakistan fielding unit has improved. He said “I think that’s what their main concern was, about his fitness and how he will shape up. And certainly, in the two overs that he bowled, he’s shown that he’s back to full fitness. So, clearly that is one headache gone. I think with their catching, they were much better than what we saw against England. Their ground fielding was very good. So, these are two aspects that was worrying them and they have shown improvement in those areas. So, I don’t think they’ll have any doubts when they’ll take on India on Sunday.”

Under MS Dhoni’s captaincy, India won the inaugural T20I WC in 2007. The team will try to replicate that magic in an effort to bring the cherished trophy back to India from Australia.

Pakistan T20 WC Squad: Babar Azam (c), Shadab Khan, Asif Ali, Fakhar Zaman, Haider Ali, Haris Rauf, Iftikhar Ahmed, Khushdil Shah, Mohammad Hasnain, Mohammad Nawaz, Mohammad Rizwan, Mohammad Wasim, Naseem Shah, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Shan Masood. Standby Players: Usman Qadir, Mohammad Haris, Shahnawaz Dahani.

India T20 WC Squad: Rohit Sharma (Captain), KL Rahul (vice-captain), Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Deepak Hooda, Rishabh Pant (wicket-keeper), Dinesh Karthik (wicket-keeper), Hardik Pandya, R. Ashwin, Yuzvendra Chahal, Axar Patel, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Harshal Patel, Arshdeep Singh, Mohammad Shami. Mohammed Siraj and Shardul Thakur will join Ravi Bishnoi and Shreyas Iyer as backups and will travel to Australia shortly.