🏏T20 Asia Cup 2025 India vs Pakistan, 6th Match, Group A, Dubai🏏 - Page 2

India-Pakistan clashes are never for the faint-hearted. Every duel on the field is a battle within a battle, but on paper it looks like one-way traffic, with India clearly going in as favourites. Will Salman Ali Agha-led cricket's perpetual "cornered" tigers turn the tables around? Brace yourself for another epic spectacle at the Dubai International Stadium on Sunday.

India vs Pakistan (AP)

TimesofIndia.com in Dubai: The India-Pakistan contest is where legends are made and hearts are broken. Beyond sheer skill, it’s the temperament, nerves and the ability to seize defining moments that decide the victor.Every duel on the field is a battle within a battle. The captains, Suryakumar Yadav and Salman Ali Agha, have already hinted that their teams will play with fire.

Former Pakistan cricketers have already sharpened their swords.

There is a significant political and emotional background to it, like always, but for the players, it is all about what happens in the Dubai International Stadium. We have shortlisted seven key players who can decide the outcome of the T20 game. Jasprit Bumrah: The obvious one first. Bumrah is India's best pacer and their biggest weapon in big matches. His record against Pakistan is brilliant too: five wickets in four matches with an economy rate of 5.43. He doesn't need ideal conditions to take wickets and Pakistan would be the most wary of him. (AFP Photo)

Kuldeep Yadav: Talking about conditions, there is one bowler to whom Dubai couldn't be better. He has spent most of 2025 on the bench, but the UAE game, where he took four wickets, showed just what he can do. Most current Pakistan batters haven't been exposed to him much and his variations might be too hot to handle for them.

Shivam Dube: The all-rounder didn't have a good IPL 2025, but he is one of the best spin-hitters in India. Pakistan might field as many as four spinners against India, and a promotion for him to the top four or five might be on the cards to counter that.

Hardik Pandya: Pakistan are one of Hardik Pandya's favorite opponents. In six T20I innings, he has taken 13 wickets at an average of just 12. Although the team would want better run contributions from him, his bowling alongside Bumrah and the spinners could be quite decisive. (Picture Credit: AFP)

Saim Ayub: The young left-hander is Pakistan's most exciting young opener, and India have been on the wrong side of a young left-hander's breakthrough. He's still developing, but if he gets on song, he might be one of the few in that team who can handle the variety of the Indian attack. (Picture credit: AFP)

Shaheen Afridi: The left-arm quick is as big a threat to India as someone like Hardik Pandya is to Pakistan. Again, conditions don't matter much with the left-arm quick, and Dubai has seen decent early swing too. Abhishek Sharma and Shubman Gill (who has enjoyed some nice battles with him) would be watching their feet.

Mohammad Nawaz: There has been a lot of attention on Hasan Nawaz in the lead-up to the Asia Cup, but it's Mohammad who has been in equally excellent form. He's coming fresh off a hat-trick against Afghanistan and did well with the bat against Oman. India will need to watch out.

It’s India vs Pakistan time at the 2025 Asia Cup. The match rarely ever comes without some kind of overtone or the other that is far bigger than cricket and this time, it largely is on opposition within India to their side playing the match, which is the first between the two countries since the Pahalgam terror attack.

The trump Cards

Tanishq Vaddi: Hardik Pandya and Faheem Ashraf almost play a similar role for their sides. However, Hardik is much more rounded in terms of both skills and experience at this stage of the game. His power game at the backend is quite lethal, and his bowling has come leaps and bounds over the years. From taking the new ball and swinging it, he also has masterful slower ones to rattle the batters through the middle overs and the final ones, at least for white-ball, Pandya is an all-condition all-rounder.

Now, if we consider Faheem Ashraf, he did burst onto the scene with a lot of expectations somewhere down the line, Pakistan has mismanaged his ability and could not develop him to the extent that Hardik has for India. However, for Sunday’s clash, he could not be taken lightly as he brings his share of tricks in these conditions, especially with the older ball, where his slower ones are quite deceptive and with the bat, he definitely can tonk a few out of the park at eight.

What had India coach Gambhir said about playing Pakistan

In May this year, right after 26 lives were lost in the Pahalgam terror attack, India head coach Gautam Gambhir was asked if India should be playing Pakistan in cricket tournaments.

“My personal answer to this is absolutely no. Till all this [terrorism] doesn’t stop, there should not be anything between India and Pakistan,” Gambhir had said in May while speaking at an event in Delhi.

“Ultimately, this is [the] government’s decision whether we play them or not,” Gambhir said. “I have said this before also, no cricket match or Bollywood or any other interaction is more important than the life of Indian soldiers and Indian citizens. Matches will keep happening, movies will be made, singers will continue to perform, but nothing comes close to losing a loved one in your family.

“This is not up to me, it’s not in my jurisdiction, this is for the BCCI and, more importantly, the government to decide whether we should play them or not. Whatever decision they make, we should be absolutely fine with it and not politicise it.”

Shoaib Malik on one aspect that Pakistan must focus on to defeat India

Former Pakistan cricketer Shoaib Malik has explained the one aspect that the Pakistan cricket team must take care of in order to defeat India today. Malik was a panelist on the Game On Hai show on Pakistan PTV, when he was asked what aspect would give Pakistan their best chance against India.

To this, Malik replied: “The toss is obviously not in their hands. It’s not in any team’s hands. It’s not in anyone’s hands. But the best possible chance for Pakistan is to get three to four of their players out, and that too for very few runs so that you can then play such a game with them that they stay below 160, below 150. So, I think this is a chance where I feel the Pakistan team can beat the Indian team.

“This is one, or the second scenario is that your spinners in the middle overs, both your spinners, get three wickets each. That can become a chance. If both of them play, Sufiyan Muqeem and Ibrar. If both of them play, then you have that chance because if their batsmen don’t get out, whether they bat first or second, you are never in the game.”

The Babar-Rizwan conundrum

The way the game is moving forward, anchors in T20, has become sort of dreaded word in T20 cricket. However, going back to the final of the 2024 T20 World Cup, when the Indian side was in trouble, it was Virat Kohli with his 59-ball 76 saved the day for India indicating that there is still room for such players when the conditions require however, India could afford to have someone like Kohli who is an anchor of sorts in the modern game is because of Rohit Sharma’s change of approach after the 2023 World Cup.

Drawing a similar parallel with Pakistan both Babar and Rizwan altough are technically sound players they do have their limitations in stroke play but in the recently concluded Tri-series in Sharjah the Pakistan middle order was quite combustble and have seen collapses too often which raises the question could Pakistan have stuck with atleast one of Babar or Rizwan in the side just as an insurance policy when the par scores are around 160-180 which is more often than not the case in Dubai.

What did India coach Gautam Gambhir tell players about the Pakistan game?

The Asia Cup clash between India and Pakistan on Sunday will be the first time that the arch-rivals square off after the Pahalgam terror attack and the consequent Operation Sindoor in May. There are plenty of questions about whether India should be playing Pakistan at all. India’s assistant coach Ryan ten Doeschate has revealed that head coach Gautam Gambhir addressed this issue in the dressing room.

“We obviously are aware of the sentiments and the strong feelings. And Gauti’s (Gambhir’s) message has just been very professional, about not worrying about things that are not in our control,” India’s assistant coach said in the pre-match press conference. “You have to put those sentiments and emotions behind you. It’s actually something addressed in the team meeting today. So we’re aware of people’s feelings. At the same time, we would put these aside and focus on the game.”

Conditions and combinations

Pakistan, under Mike Hesson, have changed significantly in terms of the combination they are picking. Under the previous regimes their attack had been constructed around pace with the likes of Shaheen Shah Afridi, Naseem Shah and Haris Rauf but with the new captain Salman Agha at the helm the side has been more inclined towards picking up multiple spinners in their attack and in a way the combination is similar to the Indian side with Shaheen Shah Afridi for the Men in Green and Jasprit Bumrah for the Men in Blue as lone pacers and the rest of the attack is constructed with spin all-rounders and mystery spinners.

Both sides, when met earlier in the year at the Champions Trophy 2025 India, have opted for this combination, where Pakistan played the pace-heavy side, which did look toothless on the docile Dubai wicket on that day. Although it is early cricket season in the UAE, the evidence so far in Dubai suggests the pitches have not been too different from the ones from the Champions Trophy, if anything slightly more pacier and even carry.

What is the mood on the ground in Dubai?

Sandip G, The Indian Express’ man on the ground in UAE for the Asia Cup, writes that the mood on the ground is muted, even for the big India vs Pakistan game.

He writes: “Watching Friday’s match against UAE on television, a Pakistan supporter enthusiastically says, ‘Hum India ko 70 runs mein all out karenge (We will get them all-out in 70 runs),’ only to add moments later: ‘Aur woh humko 50 mein all out karega! Umeed nahi hai (But they will get us out in 50 runs. There is no hope).’

“It was a rivalry that was once equal, replete with magnetic personas. Now, it has lost its competitive edge: India are world champions, the runaway leaders on the ranking pile, and Pakistan sit seventh, a spot below Sri Lanka, just precariously ahead of Bangladesh.”