IND vs PAK: Bowlers shootout likely in horrid New York pitch

New Delhi,UPDATED: Jun 9, 2024 06:14 IST

India are set to face Pakistan in the marquee clash of the T20 World Cup 2024. However, the buzz at the moment is not about the battles and match-ups between the players but about the pitch that they will be playing on, at the Nassau County International Stadium in New York. India captain Rohit Sharma was scathing in his criticism of the New York pitch.

In the press conference ahead of the Sunday clash, Sharma said that even the pitch curators did not have any clue how the pitch was going to behave. Both India and Pakistan will be venturing into a sort of unknown territory when they walk out into the park on Sunday, especially because, with rain predicted to play a part in the fixture, no one exactly knows how the ground and the pitch would hold up.

This is expected to give a big advantage to the bowlers at the Nassau County Stadium and one might add that the evidence in the past few games hosted at the venue, heavily suggests the same.

IND vs PAK: Preview

In the two matches that South Africa have played at the stadium, they have been able to bowl out Sri Lanka for 77 and then restrict the Netherlands to just 103 runs. For South Africa, pacers have dominated the game, extracting a lot of bounce from the back of length area. The likes of Marco Jansen found swing in the first few overs and put the batters in real trouble.

In the only match that India played on the venue, Arshdeep Singh was virtually unplayable in his two-over spell in the powerplay.

PAKISTAN PACE-BATTERY

Pakistan head coach Gary Kirsten was asked about the team's fast bowling unit in the pre-match press conference. The head coach agreed that Pakistan banked on the pace battery, but the team knew that it was important to fire on all cylinders. The likes of Haris Rauf and Shaheen Shah Afridi are lightning-quick and can pose big challenges for batters if they get a little bit of help from the deck.

KING BUMRAH TO RESCUE

Memories will be fresh for Pakistan from their defeat against India in the ODI World Cup 2023. In that game, despite Rohit Sharma's rapid match-winning 86 off 63, Jasprit Bumrah was given the player of the match award. Bumrah had bowled a magic spell of 7-1-19-2 to absolutely decimate Pakistan in the first 20 overs.

Bumrah has been dangerous as usual in the T20 World Cup and could turn out to be a game-changer once again. Along with Mohammed Siraj, Arshdeep Singh and a fit and firing Hardik Pandya, the Indian bowling unit could turn up the heat against Pakistan, who are low in confidence after their loss against the USA.

PITCH MYSTERY

The ICC had promised better pitches in New York after the India vs Ireland game. A glimpse of that was seen in South Africa vs Netherlands when SA were 12/4 in the second innings chasing just 104 runs. It is expected that the match will be played on a fresh pitch, and as per Rohit Sharma, nobody knows what demons will come out of it.

One can expect that India vs Pakistan might just turn out to be a proper bowlers' shootout in New York. And if that happens, who cares? It is a shootout after all.