Image Credit- AFP
It’s that peculiar juncture in the arduous World Cup
group stage when a team’s hypothetical momentum seems to matter more than their
actual standing on the points chart. No matter how you slice it, Pakistan is
superior to Australia in terms of points and net run rate. But because
Australia can strike when they need it and Pakistan has a tendency to panic
when things go wrong, this is a match between two teams that are ready to
charge and one that can feel the breath of the other team on their necks. Any
Pakistani fan will tell you that the yellow team is the one they avoid playing
when they absolutely need a victory.
Australia showed they weren’t prepared to abandon
their campaign with a whimper after losses to India and South Africa. Sri Lanka
was defeated by an all-around performance (with bat, ball and pitch) that gave
them their first points and increased their negative net run rate. In contrast
to Pakistan’s spin department, which is currently particularly ineffective,
Adam Zampa’s strong haul and control through the middle overs set him apart
from Mitchell Marsh, who was dismissed after two failures.
The jury is still out on this Pakistani team’s merits
despite them having played a lot of ODIs over the past eight weeks. The
discussion has reached extremes as a result of the associated hysteria that follows
a loss to India, but these extremes are more like an abstract image than a
blank canvas because it is difficult to discern any objective truth from them.
They have an incredible bowling attack, but a large
portion of it is either injured or out of shape. They have a fantastic top
three, but remember the warning from the preceding phrase. Despite losing their
final eight games for a 36–0 record against India, their middle order has now
started to contribute. They have Shadab Khan, a generational all-rounder, but
he is so terribly out of shape that his spot in the starting XI isn’t certain.
Despite facing an Associate nation and the only other winless team in the
competition, they have recorded two victories in three games.
Though it’s still early in the competition, it’s
possible that only broad strokes have been painted, and the complete painting
has yet to take shape. However, the World Cup match between Australia and
Pakistan has historically been important. It’s important to keep in mind that
at least one of these two has always advanced to the World Cup’s last four as
both teams attempt to revitalise campaigns that haven’t had the best of starts.
One will make another effort to uphold their half of the bargain in Bengaluru.