As Pakistan and India face off in Pallekele, Sri Lanka, today in their hotly-anticipated Asia Cup Group A match, cricket fans from both countries who are based in Bahrain are buzzing with excitement at the prospect of watching the traditional rivals do battle again.
This will be the first One-Day International (ODI) between the two countries since they last met in Manchester during the 2019 International Cricket Council (ICC) Cricket World Cup, although they have clashed in several T20I matches in ICC and Asian Cricket Council (ACC) events since.
Pakistan have won only once in the last five ODI matches between the two teams with their solitary victory coming in the 2017 ICC Champions Trophy final.
Still, Pakistan’s recent run of consistent performances leading to their current No. 1 ODI ranking gives them an edge, an Indian cricket fan who has been based in the kingdom since 2000 told the GDN.
“I would say Pakistan have a 51-49 edge,” Irfan Shaikh, 46, the general manager of the Lagoona Beach Luxury Resort and Spa and committed club cricketer, said.
“The reason for that is that Pakistan are a cohesive unit at present while India appear to be a bit in disarray. Heading into this tournament – with the World Cup just a month away – they don’t have a settled batting unit which doesn’t bode well for them given the firepower in Pakistan’s pace attack,” the Mumbai native, who manages and captains a club side in a local league, added.
Madiha Habib, who has been based in Bahrain for the past 10 years since moving to the kingdom from Lahore, agreed with Shaikh’s assessment about the threat posed by Pakistan’s pace attack.
“Pakistan have the advantage, no question about it!” Habib, who is the corporate head of marketing at Al Hilal Hospital and Medical Centres, told the GDN.
“We have the best pace attack in the world at present in the form of Shaheen Shah Afridi, Haris Rauf and Naseem Shah. And our batting line-up is also better than India’s at present – although that wasn’t the case in the past.”
However, Gayathri Vishwanath, a homemaker born in Chennai but raised in Delhi and based in Bahrain since 2007, believes India have a very good chance of winning.
“There’s a caveat, though: our openers have to get through Afridi’s opening burst,” Vishwanath, who will watch the game with her husband and 76-year-old mother-in-law, told the GDN.
“As he demonstrated last year, Shaheen’s opening spell can be scary. If our openers can somehow make it through that, then India will have a real chance.”
Rehan Ashraf, 49, who is the chief financial officer at United Gulf Bank and also plays for a local club side, was a bit more measured with his thoughts.
“One can’t really predict how a game like this will turn out,” Ashraf, who has been based in Bahrain since 2001 after moving from his native Karachi, told the GDN.
“But I do think there is a lot more pressure on India to win this match than there is on Pakistan. Most of it has to do with external factors – the media hype back home, for example – but they’re also partly responsible themselves.
“Also, apart from captain Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli, none of the young players have solid ODI credentials – they have a lot of exposure to T20s, thanks to the Indian Premier League (IPL) and T20Is, but they haven’t really proved themselves in the 50-over format yet.”
Tejbir Singh, a 61-year-old architect from Delhi who has lived in Bahrain since 1998, was certain, however, that, whatever the result, the match was going to live up to its billing.
“The one thing I’m sure of is that it’s going to be a cracker of a game,” Singh told the GDN.
“Both sides are well-balanced and evenly-matched. For India, though, a lot will depend on how Jasprit Bumrah bowls. He’s coming back after a long lay-off because of injury and surgery and if he gets into some kind of rhythm, he could be a handful.”
For Rashid Hidayat, however, it is the team with the better game plan and the ability to hold its nerve that will ultimately triumph.
“It’s quite simple, really,” Hidayat, 43, who moved to Bahrain in 2015 from Karachi and is the head of information security at a multinational bank, told the GDN.
“Whichever team plans better, displays better maturity and match awareness and manages to hold its nerve in such a high-pressure game will seize the day,” Hidayat, a left-arm medium-pacer who played alongside former Test cricketers Mohammed Sami and Danish Kaneria at a Karachi club as a teen and still plays club cricket in Bahrain, added.
However, Sanjay Kapoor, 55, a film-maker from Bombay who moved to Bahrain in 1992, thinks that Pakistan will be likely winners.
“I genuinely think Pakistan will win,” he told the GDN.
“India appear to be in total disarray, they’ve still not decided who’s going to bat where in the order, Bumrah appears to have lost pace on his return from surgery so I think the odds are tilted 75-25 in Pakistan’s favour, what with their lethal opening attack and settled batting line-up.”
However, there is a dampener – quite literally – in the air in Pallekele with weather forecasts predicting a 60 per cent chance of rain in the evening, which could result in a curtailed game or a complete washout.
But everyone waiting excitedly in Bahrain for the match to start will not let a gloomy weather forecast dampen their spirits as they continue to make preparations to watch the game.
Shaikh plans to watch the match at a friend’s place with 10 friends, only three of whom are Pakistani.
“So, if Pakistan win, we are in for it!” he chuckled.
On the other hand, Habib will stay at home and take the match in with her husband, who also captains a club side in one of Bahrain’s local leagues.
“Because of how passionate I am as a cricket fan, it’s probably better that I stay at home and watch it with my family,” she laughed. “I just hope Pakistan manage to win.”
Ashraf will also stay at home and watch the encounter unfold with his mum, also an avid cricket fan.
“I just hope the rain doesn’t spoil it all,” he said. “And I hope, overall, it’s a good game of cricket, no matter who wins.”
Singh, too, plans to enjoy the game with his wife and daughter at home.
“The weather forecast will make the toss interesting as well,” he said. “Because whoever wins it will opt to bat second. With rain in the air, though, it might become a bit of a lottery, what with the DLS coming into play and all that.”
And Hidayat has ensured that he has no commitments at all during the duration of the match.
“My wife, 12-year-old son and I will take no calls and will be glued to the TV until the game ends,” he said, laughing. “We take our cricket very seriously.”
Kapoor, who doubled down on his prediction about a Pakistan win “… because India might be a little over-confident and their opponents might have a little more fire in their bellies …” will also opt to watch the game at home.
“I just want to watch a good game of cricket,” he said. “As long as both teams play to their potential, it’ll be worth the time spent engrossed in it.”
And Vishwanath, who has a few superstitions about how she watches a game of cricket, will ensure she sits in the same seat for the duration of the game.
“I can’t help my superstitions,” she giggled. “They might sound strange but here they are:
“I always watch a game at home, I don’t watch the toss and, if India – or Chennai Super Kings (CSK), my home team – are doing well, then I keep on sitting in the same spot and don’t even move an inch. That’s because I think that, by standing up or walking to a different part of the room or the house, I might jinx them. And you know what? It works – as long as I’m glued to the same spot, all goes well. I move a muscle and everything goes haywire.”