LAHORE: Former pacer Shoaib Akhtar has predicted that India and Pakistan will reach the final of the T20 World Cup and Pakistan will beat India.
“I have a feeling Pakistan and India will play in the T20 World Cup final and India will lose to Pakistan. Conditions in UAE will favour both India and Pakistan,” Shoaib Akhtar told a sports channel on YouTube.
While speaking about the comparison between Team India captain Virat Kohli and Pakistan skipper Babar Azam, Akhtar said that Pakistani batsman needs to score more runs while chasing.
“If Babar needs to beat Virat and surpass him, he will have to score more runs while chasing and play the kind of innings Kohli has. There is no doubt that Babar Azam can probably be the greatest batsman of Pakistan, but it will take time. We will judge Kohli and Babar after 10 years where they stand,” Akhtar added.
The T20 World Cup will be held in October from the UAE. India were supposed to host the tournament this year but the Covid-19 pandemic disrupted plans.
Pakistan and India have been placed in the same group and will face each other in T20 cricket for the first time in 5 years. There is excitement among cricket fans for the tournament as they will get to see India face Pakistan on a cricket field.
The T20 World Cup 2021 is scheduled to take place from October 17 to November 14 this year. India and Pakistan will be joined by New Zealand, Afghanistan and two other qualifiers from Round 1 in Group 2 of the Super 12 stage. Group 1 will feature two-time and reigning champions West Indies along with Australia, England and South Africa and two other qualifiers.
India and Pakistan have not played bilateral cricket in over a decade but have continued to face other in global tournaments. Since the World Cup in 2011, India and Pakistan have played each other in all ICC events, with India losing just one game.
