Cricket’s fiercest rivals will lock horns on Sunday in a battle that will prove pivotal to the pair’s ICC Champions Trophy aspirations and in the world of cricket, it doesn’t get much bigger than this.

Dating back to 1952, India and Pakistan is a rivalry that’s not only stood the test of time, but continues to grow and evolve. 

These South Asian nations find another gear when they meet, the ICC states.

Anticipation for Sunday’s encounter has meanwhile reached fever pitch, given their last 50-over encounter was way back in 2023 at the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup, where India claimed a seven-wicket win. 

The two sides also met at last year’s ICC Men’s T20 World Cup, where India prevailed by just six runs.

But for Pakistan, the team has reached the point of desperation as the host nation needs to win if they want to progress to the semi-finals.

While Pakistan had a good run recently when they beat South Africa in the lead-up to the Champions Trophy, they lost to New Zealand in the opening event last week. 

In contrast, India however are eight wins from nine games in white-ball cricket this year so far, and unbeaten from four in ODIs. 

India dominated England 3-0 leading into the Champions Trophy, before taking care of Bangladesh in their first tournament match.

For Pakistan, their opening match last week got off to a poor start when they fell to a 60-run loss to the Black Caps in Karachi. The news also got worse for the reigning champions when it was revealed that star opener Fakhar Zaman would miss the remainder of the tournament due to injury.

ICC Hall of Famer Ricky Ponting meanwhile dissected where it went wrong for Pakistan in their opening match against New Zealand and what they need to put in place to upset arch-rivals India in Dubai.

Ponting discussed Pakistan’s plight with Sanjana Ganesan on the most recent episode of The ICC Review and said he thinks it is going to be tough for the Asian side to put the loss of Fakhar behind them and return to winning ways against India.

“It’s going to be hard for Pakistan now,” Ponting said.

“We spoke only a few days ago and my prediction for that game was that Pakistan would beat New Zealand and probably beat them quite comfortably.

“Fakhar’s injury didn’t help their cause but they were chasing a very big total on the back of some great batting from New Zealand. To post 320, it was always going to be a hard run chase.

“With Pakistan, we talk about it every tournament, they’re unpredictable. You never quite know what they’re going to do.

“On their day, they were as capable as anybody. And now, having lost to New Zealand, they’re going to have to be at their absolute best against India to beat them.

“India’s got off to a great start, Pakistan not so much. And with that injury that we spoke about, I think it’s going to be hard for them to bounce back, but they can.”

Sympathy for Fakhar

Ponting had sympathy for Fakhar, who injured himself while fielding against New Zealand and was then visibly disappointed after he was dismissed with the knowledge that his injury had flared and he would likely miss the remainder of the tournament.

Pakistan confirmed on Thursday that Imam-ul-Haq had been brought into their squad to replace Fakhar and Ponting said the team needed to move on as quickly as possible to ensure they give their best against India.

On Fakhar’s injury he said: “It is heartbreaking. These players work for these big tournaments. He’s been in super touch as well. been making a lot of runs.

“And his teammates would be gutted not to have him, but even more so for him…it’s always a hard thing to get over, but at the end of the day, you have to get over it. You’ve got to find a way to bounce back really quickly.

“The best thing you can do is sit back in the dressing room that night and discuss it and put it to bed and leave it there. And then when you get up the next day, as a group, you’ve got to find a way to regroup and find someone that can come in and do a good job for Pakistan.”

Sunday’s match will be played in Dubai and gets underway at 1:30pm Kabul time. 

Fans across the country can tune in to Ariana Television at 12:30pm for a preview show. The match will then be broadcast live across the country.