India vs Pakistan: ICC U19 World Cup set to witness a red-hot semifinal

Photo Credit: ICC

Christchurch: After bagging lucrative deals at the Indian Premier League (IPL) auction, members of the unbeaten Indian team will be eager to deliver when they face archrivals Pakistan in the second semifinal of the ICC U19 World Cup here on Tuesday.

Three-time champions India have played like a thorough professional outfit, winning all four matches in emphatic fashion, including the quarterfinal against Bangladesh.

For two-time winners Pakistan, the tournament didn't start the way they wanted, before they got going. The Pakistanis lost their tournament opener to Afghanistan but then went on to win the next three matches. However, their last two results were narrow three-wickets wins against Sri Lanka and South Africa.

Pakistan's bowling, led by left-arm pace sensation Shaheen Afridi, has done the job for the team but batting has been far from convincing.

Ali Zaryab Asif has done the bulk of the scoring in the middle-order, rescuing the side from tight situations twice. He hit 59 against Sri Lanka and followed it up with a 74 against South Africa in the quarterfinal.

Indian pacers Kamlesh Nagarkoti and Shivam Mavi would look to exploit that weakness in the opposition camp. The young Indian guns would also be high on confidence, having secured potentially life-changing deals at the IPL auction with their performances in the World Cup.

Kolkata Knight Riders paid Rs 3.2 crore and Rs 3 crore for the left-arm pacer Nagarkoti and Mavi, respectively, while left-arm spinners Anukul Roy and Abhishek Sharma were lapped up by Mumbai Indians and Delhi Daredevils for Rs 20 lakh and Rs 55 lakh respectively.

Batting mainstays, captain Prithvi Shaw and Shubman Gill, too impressed the IPL teams with their showing in New Zealand.

Gill, who hit a match-winning 86 in the quarterfinals and is the team's leading scorer with 239 runs, went to KKR for Rs 1.8 crore while Shaw was bought for Rs 1.2 crore by Mumbai Indians.

Shaw's opening partner Manjot Kalra too managed a Rs 20 lakh deal with Delhi Daredevils. However, all these players will have to put the post-auction euphoria behind and focus on the job at hand. As rightly put by coach Rahul Dravid, "auction will come every year but not the opportunity to play in a World Cup". And place in a World Cup final is at stake.

The highly-rated batsmen will have to be wary of Afridi, who has taken 11 wickets in four games at 10.21, including a six-wicket haul against Ireland.

Pakistan will be more familiar with the conditions, having played their quarterfinal at the Hagley Oval here.

India had played their last game against Bangladesh in Queenstown.

After the quarterfinal, the explosive Gill had said that the team was looking forward to play Pakistan.

"We remembered our loss in the Asia Cup and so were determined to win the match (against Bangladesh). As for the Pakistan game, we are looking forward to the match since we did not play them in the Asia Cup. We're sure it will be a good match," he said.

Squads

India: Prithvi Shaw (c), Shubman Gill, Aryan Juyal, Abhishek Sharma, Arshdeep Singh, Harvik Desai, Manjot Kalra, Kamlesh Nagarkoti, Pankaj Yadav, Riyan Parag, Ishan Porel, Himanshu Rana, Anukul Roy, Shivam Mavi, Shiva Singh.

Pakistan: Hasan Khan (c), Rohail Nazir , Mohammad Ali Khan, Ali Zaryab, Ammad Alam, Arshad Iqbal, Imran Shah, Mohammad Taha, Muhammad Mohsin Khan, Muhammad Musa, Muhammad Zaid, Munir Riaz, Saad Khan, Shaheen Afridi, Suleman Shafqat.