00:00 Hi, I'm Ayaz Mehmed with the World Cup Update.
00:02 Come Saturday, it's India vs Pakistan, the marquee match of this tournament.
00:06 In fact, this is cricket's biggest rivalry and the attention of, well, almost 2 billion people,
00:13 you know, from the subcontinent, from the entire cricket world will be focused,
00:17 reverted on this match and the action that takes place in the Narendra Modi Stadium.
00:23 How do the two teams stack up so far?
00:25 Both India and Pakistan have played two matches each and won both.
00:29 The style of victory, the manner in which these victories have been achieved has been fantastic.
00:34 India have coasted through both their matches.
00:37 Bit of a problem against Australia in the opening match, but they recovered strongly and won very convincingly.
00:42 Then they thrashed Afghanistan.
00:44 Pakistan have had things a little difficult against Netherlands also and even more so against Sri Lanka.
00:50 But to their credit, they emerged strongly from a crisis to go on to win the matches.
00:57 Pakistan was really impressive because they were chasing 345.
01:00 The problem for Pakistan could be that a lot of their key players are still not in form.
01:06 Babar Azam, the captain, has had a bad World Cup so far.
01:09 Shaheen Shahafrizi and Haris Rauf, the dreaded pace duo, haven't been amongst the wickets
01:16 and in fact have looked rather tepid.
01:18 So too Shadab Khan.
01:20 Where spinners have thrived, the leg spinner from Pakistan has been struggling
01:24 to get any fizz out of the wicket or in fact get wickets.
01:28 Meanwhile on the other hand, India have looked in magnificent form, all-round form.
01:33 Rohit Sharma cracking the fastest century by an Indian against Afghanistan.
01:39 KL Rahul making an unbeaten 97 against Australia.
01:42 Virat Kohli with two really solid half-centuries in both matches.
01:46 And then the bowlers. Bumrah coming back to international cricket has never bowled better.
01:52 Then there is Ravindra Jadeja, then there is Kuldeep Yadav.
01:57 I mean, it just looked a very strong outfit.
02:00 They've also got Ashwin, they've got Mohammad Shamli in the back.
02:03 They didn't play the last match so these guys could come in.
02:05 There's Pandya, the all-rounder who's also done well with ball.
02:10 He's not had much of a chance with the bat but he's done really well with the ball.
02:13 And remember, this is a pitch which is his home turf.
02:16 This is the ground which is his home ground.
02:18 So Pandya could be a pivotal player.
02:20 A quick update on Shubman Gill.
02:23 He is in Ahmedabad. He practiced for an hour on Thursday.
02:28 Will practice again on Friday.
02:30 It's not sure whether he'll play on Saturday or not.
02:33 There's some suggestion, there's a hint that he might.
02:36 But even without him, India just packed, as I mentioned, too many big guns all in form.
02:42 And that's going to be the challenge for Pakistan.
02:44 How do you overcome such a strong team as India on their home ground?
02:50 The only thing which will make a difference, not the only thing, but one thing which will make a big difference is the pressure.
02:56 The ability or the capacity of the players to absorb the pressure of such a contest is always pivotal to the outcome.
03:03 Just a reminder, since 1992 when India and Pakistan met each other for the first time in the World Cup.
03:09 This happened in Sydney.
03:11 India and India beat Pakistan then.
03:14 And since then India have never lost to Pakistan in ODI World Cup tournament.
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