Image: Pakistan vs USA / © X (Twitter)
Even US President Donald Trump seems to have figured out that the World Cup is happening, as he contributed to wishing the USA the best of luck on the eve of their next match against the two teams.
Pakistan enters this contest on the heels of a win that was solidified by some late-in-the-match to Faheem Ashraf’s effort against the Netherlands, and the USA looks to have started to earn points after Suryakumar Yadav’s fireworks suggested they might have been able to pull off one of cricket’s most significant upsets by defeating India.
The USA has shown on multiple occasions now that they are skilled with upsets, having handed one to Pakistan on this very field a mere two years ago when they played to a Super Over before knocking Pakistan out of the tournament. During the last week of warm-up matches, the USA has shown that they have enough juice left to do it again, having bounced back after coming very close to beating New Zealand in warm-up games, then frightening India.
With less than 72 hours to acclimatise between the end of their last game and the toss for their match against the Sinhalese Sports Club in Colombo, they will be travelling from Mumbai to Colombo with very little adjustment time. Fortunately, they are confident they will be able to frustrate Pakistan as they did to India. The absence of Ali Khan and Shubham Ranjane due to injury could prove troublesome for the bowling department; however, Shadley van Schalkwyk’s disciplined seam bowling, along with the right and left arm spinners Mohammad Mohsin and Harmeet Singh, presented other options to unsettle India’s batters.
If the USA is going to be in contention, they are going to need their top three batters to contribute; had they made an early contribution against India, the match would have likely gone differently. The hope will be that Andries Gous and captain Monank Patel have learned from their mistakes against the Indians.
The relief that is palpable in Pakistani sporting circles is palpable, post the exit from ICC tournaments in quick succession, will continue to resonate with the teams that participated in the World Cup had they performed much better than they did. One of the main reasons for the buoyancy in the surroundings of the team is that there were times during the game against the Netherlands when Pakistan appeared on the point of losing. They had been developing a position of security and comfort when losing two wickets made them appear to collapse and resultantly likely to lose to any level of pressure applied by their opposition or the match situation.
As Pakistan prepare to continue with its group stage matches, it is acutely aware that the forthcoming match against India on February 15 will be under scrutiny and consequently affect the way they approach these matches, viewing every match as a knockout game. They will also be acutely aware of how fragile they have been in losing focus, even for short periods and that it will ultimately result in minimal further participation in the World Cup.
Pakistan is most concerned about how brittle their middle-order batting has been since its collapse at the first sign of pressure. Babar Azam’s run to form has come at the cost of Agha Salman becoming a higher-rated batsman in the top order; however, Pakistan are yet to have a true evaluation of Usman Khan under significant duress. They will be worried that there are not enough true specialist-style batsmen to bat high enough to stop the procession of all-rounders coming to the crease one spot too soon in the batting order. This is an area of vulnerability they know they must cover up; however, a successful top-order attack by the US could truly uncover that soft underbelly for Pakistan.