Kamal Ghorui
THE TIMES OF INDIA, COLOMBO: Thirty years ago — Feb 13, 1996 to be precise — an India-Pakistan combined XI played the Sri Lankan team at the Premadasa in solidarity with the war-torn island nation ahead of the World Cup. In perhaps the only-ever actual India-Pak XI to take a cricket field, the match was an attempt to showcase that Lanka held no threat and was indeed safe to play in.
Three decades later today, in this changed world of no-handshakes, that’s probably an irrelevant anecdote. Or is it? After an incredible amount of backroom negotiations, this T20 World Cup version of the India-Pakistan rivalry will finally take place in Colombo, signalling a sense of subcontinental ceasefire. The cricket bosses of all five Test-playing nations of the subcontinent, including absentee Bangladesh, are likely to be present at the Premadasa on Sunday.Even the captains of the two teams seem to have backed off from their shrill dislike of each other. Pakistan skipper Salman Ali Agha had a word or two of praise for India counterpart Suryakumar Yadav, who returned the compliment by saying, “They are a good team and are playing good cricket in this tournament.”With fans trooping in from different parts of India, the 35,000-strong ground will have a predominantly home ground feel for India. Pakistan, however, have the advantage of being in Colombo for a while, having played a couple of matches at SSC, and with an extra practice session under their belt. The fact is that the playing arena is bigger than most grounds in India and the pitch for the game is significantly slower than what SKY’s boys have played on of late at home.Both captains tried to water down the advantage factor for Pakistan. While Agha said it all came down to the performance on the day, Suryakumar said they have played in Sri Lanka many times to know what to expect. “Pakistan may have a slight advantage but we have the experience of so many tours. And we know how to play in these conditions and adjust as per the situation,” the India skipper said. Spinners and bowlers taking pace off could be key and Pakistan have played the spin quartet of mystery spinners Usman Tariq and Abrar Ahmed, left-arm finger Mohammed Nawaz and leggie Shadab Khan. It’s likely that Pakistan may drop either Shadab or Nawaz to try and fit in one pacer in Salman Mirza or Naseem Shah.‘SKY’ emulates Tariq actionThe talking point, though, is spinner Usman Tariq and ‘SKY’ accepted that the mystery slinger is “out of syllabus”. “But in an exam, you can’t leave a question like that, can you,” he joked, adding that India are taking preparations to counter the 31-year-old. In fact, once the India nets started, it was Surya who emulated with Tariq’s stop-start action to Abhishek Sharma, who has recuperated well from his illness and is ready to play.Surya, incidentally, bowled a couple of match-winning spells for India when they played in Sri Lanka at the same ground in a bilateral T20 series in 2024. It remains to be seen if he turns his arm over in match-situation on Sunday.Practice session cut short by rainAll these equations, though, can go for a toss if it rains on Sunday or if a truncated game is played. As India reached the second half of their practice session on Saturday, they were interrupted by an evening drizzle and the groundsmen immediately covered the entire ground. The forecast isn’t great for Sunday.
