Sports desk20 hours ago
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The biggest match of T20 Asia Cup will be played between India and Pakistan today. Both teams last came face to face in the T20 World Cup in June, where India showed the way out by defeating Pakistan in Super-8. Now three months later, both are fighting in the group stage of the Asia Cup. This match is not only important in terms of group points, but the winning team will make the path of Super-4 easier.
We have shortlisted 5-5 such players from both teams who can prove to be game changers in this match. Jasprit Bumrah, Kuldeep Yadav, Varun Chakraborty, Hardik Pandya and Abhishek Sharma from India are included in this list from Pakistan and Shaheen Shah Afridi, Haris Rauf, Mohammad Nawaz, Abrar Ahmed and Hasan Nawaz. Let us know why these players can prove to be a match winner for their team.
Start from Indian stars …
1. Jaspreet Bumrah: Player of the Match in last World Cup India’s best fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah will also be seen playing against Pakistan. In 4 T20s against Pakistan, he has spent only from an economy of 5.42. In the 2024 World Cup, Bumrah prevented Pakistan from getting a target of 120 runs with 3 wickets. He was also the Player of the Match in this match. In Bumrah T20 International, overalls also spend runs from just 6.27 economy. They prove effective in both powerplay and death overs.
2. Kuldeep Yadav: First T20 against Pakistan India’s best left arm spinner Kuldeep Yadav will be seen playing T20 for the first time against Pakistan. However, he has taken 15 wickets against this team in 7 ODIs. There is also a feat of taking 5 wickets once. Pakistani batters are upset every time in front of Kuldeep’s leg spin, they will be a part of playing-11 to increase Pakistan’s difficulties this time too.
3. Varun Chakraborty: Become a top bowler from mystery spin When Pakistan defeated India by 10 wickets in the 2021 T20 World Cup, Varun was playing an ICC tournament for the first time. He spent 33 runs in his 4 overs against Pakistan. After this match, he also had to be out of the team, but in the last 1 year, Varun again made a place in the team and also confirmed a place in the playing-11 on the basis of his performance. He has taken 34 wickets in just 19 T20 matches by spending runs from an economy of 6.87. They can also bother Pakistani batters due to the ability to turn the ball on both sides.
4. Hardik Pandya: 3 out of the last 4 T20s become gamechanger After Virat Kohli in the last 10 years, if a player has removed India from a difficult situation, then Hardik Pandya’s name is on top. It was Hardik who made India come back with 3 wickets from bowling in the last T20 World Cup final. Hardik gamechangers were also made in 3 of the last 4 T20s against Pakistan.
In the 2024 World Cup, he took 2 wickets for just 24 runs. In the 2022 World Cup, Hardik kept India in the match by making an important partnership with Kohli. Not only this, Hardik became the player of the match against Pakistan in the Group Stage match in the 2022 Asia Cup. He also played a 33 -run match winning innings with 3 wickets. In the 2017 Champions Trophy final, Hardik also took up the task of defeating Pakistan on his own. Like Sachin Tendulkar and Virat, Hardik also likes to perform against Pakistan.
5. Abhishek Sharma: scoring runs at a strike rate of 190+ Young opener Abhishek Sharma can prove to be an ex factor against Pakistan. He did not play any match against Pakistan in any format, but after making T20 debut in 2024, he scored 565 runs at a strike rate of 193.49. He also has 2 centuries and 2 fifty.
In the first match against UAE, he also started the innings with a six and four. If Abhishek batting till the powerplay is over, then India’s score will be brought close to 100 very fast. Abhishek’s contribution in increasing India’s scoring rate will matter a lot.
Pakistan’s 5 Gameschens …
1. Shaheen Shah Afridi: Player of the Match in World Cup When Pakistan defeated India by 10 wickets in the 2021 T20 World Cup, Shaheen Afridi overturned by bowling. He sent Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul to the pavilion in his first spell. He then sent Virat Kohli to the pavilion, who had imposed a fifty in the death overs and stopped India from scoring a big score.
Shaheen is Pakistan’s third top wicket at T20 International. He has 4 wickets in 3 matches against India with an economy of just 7.83 in 3 matches. In the last World Cup, he was not effective due to injury, but now he is fully fit and can increase India’s difficulties.
2. Harice Rauf: Has dismissed Surya 2 times Taker Haris Rauf has taken 7 wickets in 5 T20s against India in Pakistan’s T20. In this, he has sent India captain Suryakumar Yadav to the pavilion 2 times. Both the players came in front of each other in international cricket 2 times, both times Rauf won. Rauf has disturbed many international batteries with his pace and bounce. Now they can become a game changer once again against India.
3. Mohammad Nawaz: Player of the Match in Asia Cup Pakistan’s left arm spin all -rounder Mohammad Nawaz is currently in excellent form. In the final of the T20 tri-series before the Asia Cup, he won the trophy to the team by taking a hat-trick against Afghanistan. When Pakistan won the previous match in the 2022 Asia Cup, Nawaz was the player of the match. He played a match -winning innings of 42 runs off just 20 balls from batting after taking 1 wicket. Nawaz has also taken 71 wickets in 72 T20s.
4. Abrar Ahmed: Troubled by mystery spin Abrar Ahmed, who threw my mystery spin like Varun Chakraborty, is currently the top white ball spinner in Pakistan. After his debut in 2024, in 17 T20 matches, he spent only from an economy of 6.95 and took 24 wickets. In the same year, he got to play the first international match against India in the Champions Trophy, in which he took the wicket of Shubman Gill for just 28 runs in 10 overs. In such a situation, they can again increase the difficulties of Indian batter with their mystery spin.
5. Hasan Nawaz: scoring runs at a strike rate of 160+ Pakistan’s young middle order batter Hasan Nawaz made her ODI and T20 debut this year. After the debut, he scored 441 runs in 20 matches of the shortest format, batting with a strike of 161.53. Hasan has the highest strike rate in Pakistan’s playing-11. He has also scored 1 century and 2 fifty in this format. Hassan can prove to be an X factor against India on the basis of his strike rate.
