The mother of all encounters beckons for cricketing fans all around the world as Team India are all set to take on their fierce rivals Pakistan in their opening encounter in the T20 World Cup 2022 on Sunday at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG).
According to the reports, it would be a full house despite there being the possibility of rain. Fans and organisers will be surely praying to the rain gods to be kind so that it’s not a rain-curtailed affair.
Team India are coming into the extravaganza with high hopes after a disappointing 2021 World T20 where they failed to even make it to the semifinals. The last time India won a major ICC competition was back in 2013 when they defeated England to lift the Champions Trophy.
Melbourne Cricket Ground has balanced pitch for both batsman and bowlers
The high-pulsated encounter between India and Pakistan will take place the Melbourne Cricket Ground. If you go by the history of the stadium – the pitch here offers a pretty balanced competition between the bat and the ball. The pacers tend to get good purchases on the wicket early in the innings with a new ball and they could be crucial at the MCG once again. History has shown that spinners aren’t that successful and have a very limited role to play. However, nothing can be discarded when India and Pakistan play against each other.
The toss can come into play as well. The team winning the toss will prefer to bowl first as the pitch becomes relatively easy for batting as time passes by and with chances of rain – definitely toss becomes a crucial factor as well. According to the MCG curator, Michael Salvatore: “T20 wickets are usually really consistent for the whole match. So it should make for a really good game.”
Salvatore is really charged up for the encounter and has given his views regarding the pitch ahead of D-Day. “Very very excited (to prepare the pitch for the India-Pakistan match). We’re gonna have a sold-out crowd here and I think the atmosphere is going to be something very unique and something very special.”
Salvatore also revealed what special measures have been taken to create this pitch. “We have drop-in wickets here at the MCG. So for the cricket season, we bring the wickets in and I sit on some sand and bed in nicely. And then once cricket finishes, we have got the football stadium. We have the ability to take them out and put them up in our special week anniversary where we can look after and maintain them,” the curator added.
