5 reasons why India can beat Pakistan at Eden Gardens

India and Pakistan will clash in another heart racing World Cup encounter tomorrow at the Eden Gardens. India has lost their first match against New Zealand quite comprehensively, while Pakistan defeated Bangladesh in a handsome manner.

Though India has not lost any game against Pakistan in any ICC World Cup event and Pakistan have not lost to India in any of the 4 matches played at the Eden Gardens so far, India might have an edge over the Pakistani team going into the crucial match today.

Here are 5 reasons India can beat Pakistan tomorrow:

India overall T20I record against Pakistan

India has played 7 T20I matches against Pakistan till now, the first one being the now memorable tied match in the ICC World T20 2007, in which India got the points on a bowl out. India are 5-1 against Pakistan in those 7 matches, with Pakistan having one just one T20I against India, in Bangalore in 2013.

Inexperienced Pakistan

Only three player’s from Pakistan’s team which faced India in the last World T20 team will be playing tomorrow’s match; Shahid Afridi, Shoaib Malik and opener Mohd Hafeez. While India have nine such players like MS Dhoni, Yuvraj Singh, Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma amongst others. India have much experience against dealing with Pakistan on the World stage than Pakistan has with the Indian team.

India beat Pakistan in convincing fashion in Asia Cup T20

The last time these two teams met in a T20I match was in the Asia Cup T20 and India had dismissed Pakistan for just 83 runs. Pakistan tried to make a spirited comeback into the match via Mohd. Amir, who bowled a terrific spell of bowling picking 3 wickets, India eventually won the match by 5 wickets in hand thanks to Virat Kohli’s 49 runs.

Therefore, that defeat will weigh heavily on the minds of Pakistan team, when they meet India tomorrow. Meanwhile, India can forget what happened against New Zealand in Nagpur and can draw inspiration from this match against Pakistan.

Nice wake up call for India in their last match

The match against New Zealand displayed one of the most fatal flaws in the Indian team, their tendency to get complacent when they are doing well. Sunil Gavaskar warned them about getting complacent after winning 6-7 games in a row and the Asia Cup T20 recently.

India read the pitch wrong and New Zealand just trapped the batsmen, who were playing with hard hands on a turning pitch and demolished India by 47 runs. This should serve as a good wake-up call for India in terms of the tournament and should, at least make them aware of the challenge ahead of them in form of Pakistan.

History backs India against Pakistan

India have beaten Pakistan in every game they have faced each other in an ICC World Cup event, be it the 50 over tournament or the 20 over tournament. They will hope for the trend to continue and will want to keep the streak alive. Whereas Pakistan have their own streak at the Eden Gardens, with 4 wins against India in 4 matches.

But in an atmosphere of World Cup matches and the pressure, the history backs India and they will buoyed by the fact that their opener Rohit Sharma has an outstanding record at the Eden Gardens having scored his famous 264 against Sri Lanka in an ODI and he made a debut Test century. He recently made 98 off 56 balls against West Indies in a warm-up match here.

In all, the match tomorrow will be 3 ½ hours of pure adrenaline rush and entertainment.