India's spin, Pakistan's pace to bring spark to Champions Trophy contest

In the absence of their pace bowling spearhead Jasprit Bumrah and relatively young options in Arshdeep Singh and Harshit Rana, India cricket team will bank on their spinners to trouble Pakistan on the Dubai International Cricket Stadium pitch during a Champions Trophy game on Sunday.

Pakistan cricket team, on the other hand, don’t have as big a wealth of spinners as India, and will therefore depend on their pace bowlers, says their Head Coach Aaqib Javed.

“We have three, I would say, one of the best pace bowling options in today's game with Shaheen, Naseem and Haris. It reminds me of that 1990s troika,” he said in a press conference.

“I've heard a lot discussions going on other teams have too many spinners and we have lesser spinning options. The teams play their game on their own strengths.”

The last time the two teams faced each other in Champions Trophy was in 2017 when they played the final. Pakistan came out trumps in that encounter thanks to a man-of-the-match century by Fakhar Zaman, who hit 114.

Zaman, however, has been ruled out of the tournament after he injured himself during the first game against New Zealand.

The loss will undoubtedly impact Pakistan.

“There is no doubt Fakhar is a match winner. Every team miss their match winners. But you can't depend only on one player. We will still play as a good, strong team, and try to win. We will try to play good, positive cricket,” Javed, the former Pakistan pace bowler, added.

India played Axar Patel, Ravindra Jadeja and Kuldeep Yadav in their first game against Bangladesh which they won by six wickets. They may draft in Varun Chakravarthy either in place of Harshit Rana or Kuldeep Yadav. If Rana goes out, they will be fielding four spinners.

Javed said his boys are unfazed by India’s spin strength.

“As far as you are saying India have a plan to try 3-4 spinners. But we have to play cricket on our own strengths,” he added.

“In our team, you won't see a lot of changes. We have selected a team with some thought, one that we believe in and we will back that team and our fast-bowling options are the best. They are match-winners.”

Pakistan, being the hosts, need to win the match to stay in contention for the semifinals. A loss would make qualification for the next round tough for them. 

Tags : India cricket, Pakistan cricket, Fakhar Zaman, Champions Trophy, Dubai, Aaqib Javed