T20 World Cup: Suryakumar Yadav Press Conference ahead of India vs Pakistan
Today, three decades later, in this changed world of no handshakes, it is probably an irrelevant anecdote. or yes After an incredible amount of behind-the-scenes negotiations, this version of the India-Pakistan T20 World Cup rivalry will finally take place in Colombo, signaling a sense of subcontinental truce. Cricket bosses from all the five Test nations of the subcontinent, including absentee Bangladesh, are likely to be present at Premadas on Sunday.Even the captains of both teams seem to have stepped back from their shrill animosity towards each other. Pakistan captain Salman Ali Agha praised Indian counterpart Suryakumar Yadav who returned the compliment saying, “They are a good team and they are playing good cricket in this tournament.With fans flocking from different parts of India, the 35,000-capacity ground will largely act as India’s home ground. However, Pakistan have the advantage of being in Colombo for a while, having played a couple of matches in the SSC and also have another training session. 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 the SKY boys have been playing on recently at home.Both the captains tried to reduce the advantage factor for Pakistan. While Agha said it was all due to the performance that day, Suryakumar said they had played in Sri Lanka many times so they knew what to expect. “Pakistan may have a slight advantage but we have experience from many tours. And we know how to play in these conditions and adapt to the situation,” the Indian captain said. Spinners and bowlers can be the key and Pakistan played a quartet of enigmatic spinners Usman Tariq and Abrar Ahmed, left-arm finger Mohammed Nawaz and leggie Shadab Khan. It is likely that Pakistan may drop either Shadab or Nawaz to try to fit in one pacer in Salman Mirza or Naseem Shah.‘SKY’ mimics Tariq’s actionHowever, there is talk of spinner Usman Tariq and ‘SKY’ acknowledged that the mystery slinger is “off the charts”. “But you can’t leave a question like that in a Test, can you,” he quipped, adding that India were preparing to face the 31-year-old. In fact, as soon as India’s nets started, it was Surya who mimicked Tariq’s stop-start action with Abhishek Sharma, who has recovered well from his illness and is ready to play.Incidentally, Surya played a couple of match-winning matches for India when they played Sri Lanka at the same ground in a bilateral T20 series in 2024. Whether he turns his arm on Sunday remains to be seen.Practice was cut short by rainHowever, all of these equations can come in handy if there is rain or a shortened game on Sunday. As India got into the second half of their session on Saturday, they were interrupted by an evening drizzle and the ground men immediately covered the entire area. The forecast for Sunday is not good.