In an era gone by, an India-Pakistan faceoff was unquestionably the marquee clash of any global or continental cricket tournament. It perhaps still is, but today, it seems to be driven more by market forces and commercial considerations than just cricketing merit.
Matches between the neighbours invariably whip up emotions, heightened by the changed geo-political dynamics post Pahalgam and April 22. For the cricketers themselves, it is perhaps a decidedly unfair burden to carry, but that’s how it has been and that’s how it will be.
Pakistan’s lack of quality
The quality of cricket when these two great rivals lined up used to be of the highest order, fortunes ebbing and flowing and the pendulum oscillating furiously before finally settling on one side. But increasingly, contests between the teams have started to assume a one-sided hue. India have lost to Pakistan just once in all World Cups — at the T20 variant in Dubai in October 2021 — and have pulled ahead comprehensively. Whenever they come face to face in Asian or world events, which is where their meetings have been restricted to in the last dozen years, India begin favourites and a Pakistani victory is considered somewhat of an upset.
Because the teams meet infrequently — Sunday’s T20 Asia Cup game at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium is their third contest in the last 15 months — the temptation to cash in is overwhelming. Since both teams crashed out of their respective groups in the first round of the 50-over World Cup in the Caribbean in 2007, they have invariably been lumped together in the same pool so that at least one big-ticket showdown is guaranteed. Sometimes, like now and three years back in the same tournament at the same venue, the format throws up the possibility of three head-to-heads in two weeks. That didn’t materialise in 2022, when Sri Lanka made the final where they bested Pakistan. The principal stakeholders will be hoping for a different outcome this time around.
It’s hard to narrow down on a single specific reason for India’s dominance, now more pronounced than ever before. Perhaps Pakistan haven’t shed conservatism as rapidly as their traditional rivals, though by leaving out former skippers Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan, coach Mike Hesson appears to have taken the first baby steps towards that end.
Hesson and Pakistan might point to victory against Afghanistan in the final of a tri-series in Sharjah last Sunday as a step in the right direction, but he and new skipper Salman Agha won’t be unaware of the magnitude of the task that lies ahead of them when they play three of the other four Test-playing nations in the continent over the next fortnight.
Steep ticket prices
Contrary to the established trend, the Sunday showdown hasn’t yet caught fire like it once used to. Steep ticket prices, soaring mercury levels and the absence of Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma might have something to do with it, but full house or not, players from both sides know what is at stake.
As always, this will be an examination of temperament and character, not just cricketing abilities.
