Why India v Pakistan is a must-see event
History and two fine teams combine to make tomorrow special – and England should watch
The second world tournament final between India and Pakistan will be followed by at least one-sixth of Earth’s population. England’s cricketers should also be watching, especially when India are batting and Pakistan are bowling, to see how the best players rise to the biggest occasions, and to see what qualities England need to acquire if they are going to compete in the World Cup final at Lord’s in 2019.
England’s current batsmen have scored 34 one-day centuries, or 37 if Jason Roy’s are included. The hundred that Rohit Sharma peeled off in the semi-final against Bangladesh, without breaking sweat, was the 74th by India’s current XI – and it was their 30th outside the subcontinent.
Batting, not hitting, has to be the way to win a 50-over global tournament. If England were guaranteed to play every match on a belter, they could make do with their template of blazing away for 300. When conditions vary, as at Cardiff, orthodox batsmanship is required from the top order at least. There is only so far England can go to emulating Pakistan’s bowlers, because so many of them are left-handed – four of their pace bowlers in this tournament, and one spinner. A national team condemned to play in exile can hardly be called blessed but nature has done her bit to compensate by endowing Pakistan with so many left-armers.
But supposing England had selected David Willey in Cardiff, it is hard to envisage he would have displayed the skills of Pakistan’s left-arm pace bowlers, even in the absence of Mohammad Amir with a back injury, which is expected to clear up before the final. They gave a one-day international debut to Rumman Raees and, far from being overawed, he flummoxed England with his conventional and reverse swing, cutters, bouncers and slower balls – all delivered on such appropriate lengths that this debutant, thrown in at the deep end to open the bowling with only two fielders out, conceded three fours in all. English 50-over cricket has a long way to go before someone – Reece Topley? – can replicate these skills.
India have won every World Cup match between these two countries, but Pakistan have won twice in the Champions Trophy – though not in this edition, as they were pulverised in the qualifying game at Edgbaston by 124 runs. Yet again, India have to be favourites, their batting is so much more reliable, their bowling not far short in variety and ingenuity. However, the fact is the past eight games in this tournament have been won by the side batting second. This world tournament final, though, has a long way to go before it can be viewed as influential as the first between India and Pakistan, which was in the T20 format. That game, on Sept 24, 2007, was one of the three most important cricket matches ever – and, 10 years on, there are five survivors in India’s Sharma, Yuvraj Singh and MS Dhoni, and Pakistan’s Mohammad Hafeez and Shoaib Malik.
Each of the last three centuries has produced a cricket match pivotal to the sport’s evolution, popularising each of the three main formats in turn. The game between an English touring team and the best 11 cricketers in Australia, at Melbourne in March 1877, was quite a significant starting point: the number of Tests since then has risen to 2,261.
In 1983, the World Cup final at Lord’s did the same to popularise the format of ODIS. They had been played for 12 years, without capturing the imagination of the Asian subcontinent, but when India overturned the world champions, West Indies, the format’s future was assured. Tomorrow’s final will be the 3,894th one-day international.
The India v Pakistan final 10 years ago in Johannesburg triggered an explosion in 20-over cricket. The Indian board had been set against it – you cannot pack as many TV adverts into 20 overs as 50 – but not after Misbah-ul-haq had failed to scoop a ball over short fine-leg, so that India won the first World T20 final by five runs. The Indian Premier League swiftly followed, changing the sport’s shape irrevocably.
Cricketers were liberated from the control of their counties and countries, selling their skills to T20 franchises around the world as free agents. It became possible to earn millions instead of ending up in the workhouse as several of the first Test cricketers did. Players and supporters who want a five-day game or a one-day game or an evening game: the sport has been elastic enough to accommodate them all.