The venue for the match, Nassau County International Cricket Stadium, is ready to host 34,000 fans for what is perhaps the biggest match of any ICC tournament, especially because strained political relations between the two countries have restricted Indo-Pak cricket encounters to neutral venues in ICC and ACC tournaments.
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The promotion for the mouth-watering clash has already gained momentum, and doing its bit for that is social media, where several video clips are whetting the appetite of fans.
In one such video clip from the ILT20 tournament earlier this year, Desert Vipers’ Pakistan stars Mohammad Amir and Shaheen Shah Afridi could be seen first debating over their picks for who plays the best cover drive better — Virat Kohli or Babar Azam — and then picking between what is more delightful to watch — Rohit Sharma‘s pull shot or Mohammad Rizwan’s pick-up shot.
Asking those questions to the two fast bowlers is former Pakistan captain Shoaib Malik.
While Amir had no hesitation in going for Kohli when it came to cover drive, Shaheen was tilted towards his skipper Babar.
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On the question of Rohit and Rizwan, Shaheen said: “Flick alag shot hai, pull shot alag hai. Pull pe Rohit (flick is different, pull is different; Rohit for pull)”, as Amir counters him, “Sach bol (speak the truth).”
“Rizi (Rizwan) seems to be in a hurry,” adds Amir. “He (Rohit) plays the pull shot so easily like he has so much time to wait for the ball and then hit it.”
India and Pakistan are in Group A for the T20 World Cup, alongside co-hosts USA, Canada and Ireland. The US and the West Indies will jointly host the tournament from June 2 to 29.
India open their campaign against Ireland on June 5 in New York, while Pakistan play the US in their first match on June 6 in Dallas.
Pakistan are yet to announce their 15-man squad for the T20 World Cup; however, both Amir and Shaheen are expected to make the cut. The Pakistan team is currently in England for a four-match T20I series, after which the squad will fly to the US.