India v Pakistan: 5 Battles to watch out for at Edgbaston

The talk of the town is the enormous encounter which is scheduled for Sunday. India and Pakistan will lock horns at Edgbaston in Birmingham. The tickets for the game were sold out weeks in advance. India are known to have a great track record against their arch-rivals in major ICC events. But Pakistan have had a better win-loss ratio as far as ICC Champions Trophy is concerned.

Both sides will renew their rivalry which is, now, only restricted to major ICC events or the Asia Cup since they don’t play any bilateral series due to the political turmoil between both countries. This gives the game a further more spotlight. India are clearly the better team on paper. Pakistan, having lost a few star players lately, are confident of their chances. A lot has been said in the media and social networking sites in the lead up to the game.

In such a big clash, who reacts to the pressure well comes out on top. India is a side, who has held their nerves in recent times. Pakistan have done well under their new skipper Sarfaraz Ahmad. Things will definitely spice up come Sunday. This game will enjoy a lot of coverage all around the world.

Let us have a look at the prospective battles to watch out for in the Indo-Pak encounter on Sunday:

#1 Rohit Sharma vs Mohammad Amir

Mohammad Amir has had a tight lid over Rohit in recent times. India and Pakistan went head-to-head twice last year in T20 cricket. In the first encounter in the Asia Cup, Amir ran in and bowled one of the best spells seen in recent times at Mirpur. Rohit was stuck on the shoe on the first ball of the innings and looked out from the naked eye.But the umpire wasn’t convinced. Pakistan

But the umpire wasn’t convinced. Pakistan were disappointed. Amir reloaded. This time the umpire nodded. Rohit was on his way back. Amir was slanting the ball into the right-handers at genuine pace. Rohit struggled to get the bat down in time and was struck on the pads.

In the next game at Eden Gardens, in the ICC World T20, Amir yet again sent Rohit back early when the latter skied one to the safe hands of Shoaib Malik at covers. Amir will have his tail up when he will run in to bowl at Rohit, who will again open the innings. They have faced each other once in ODI cricket – long back in 2010 in an Asia Cup clash at Dambulla – but Rohit used to bat in the middle order then. He faced just 7 balls from the left-arm pacer and scored 4 runs.