As crowded as it gets at the Cricket World Cup: India vs Pakistan before 100,000-plus spectators

AHMEDABAD, India — Tens of millions of sports fans in south Asia will have their eyes and ears focused on one thing on Saturday — the much-anticipated Cricket World Cup match between host India and archrival Pakistan.

Political reasons constantly obstruct their bilateral series. The quarrelling neighbors haven’t met in a test series in 16 years and one-day international and Twenty20 series in 10 years. As recently as last month at the Asia Cup, India refused to go to host Pakistan, so Pakistan accommodated by sharing hosting duties with Sri Lanka.

When the teams usually meet at world championships, whether its the pressure or not, their games often fail to rise to the occasion.

Pakistan has never beaten India at the Cricket World Cup. Even when Pakistan won its only title in 1992 it lost to India in Sydney. The trend continued in 1996, 1999, 2003, 2011, 2015 and 2019. The 7-0 scoreline is a huge topic of contention among the rival fans.

Pakistan broke the streak in T20 World Cups in 2021 by dishing out a 10-wicket beating.

Pakistan is in India for the first time since the 2016 T20 World Cup and it took high-level intervention this week for Pakistan journalists and supporters to be allowed to travel to India for the round-robin match at the 134,000-capacity Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad.

Dismal spectator attendance and poor organization have been major talking points of the tournament which started only eight days ago. India hasn’t had a problem drawing crowds, but Indian locals have stayed away in droves from the other games. Mere hundreds were in the giant Narendra Modi Stadium for the opening match between England and New Zealand.

India and Pakistan have raised expectations for Saturday by winning their first two games.

India defeated five-time champion Australia by six wickets in Chennai and Afghanistan by eight wickets in New Delhi. It was a dominant batting display headlined by skipper Rohit Sharma’s record-extending seventh Cricket World Cup century.

Pakistan played its opening fixtures in Hyderabad, beating the Netherlands by 81 runs and Sri Lanka by six wickets, thanks to a record batting chase under lights.

“Seven-nil is in the past and it is a record to be broken,” Pakistan skipper Babar Azam said. “People have been calling me for match tickets, no one has called me to talk about that record.

“We enjoyed great support for one and half weeks in Hyderabad. But we expect this stadium to be blue (for India on Saturday).”

India opener Shubman Gill, sidelined so far by dengue fever, has rejoined the team in Ahmedabad. Gill was said to be “99% fit” on Friday, which means Ishan Kishan should continue to open the batting with Sharma.

“Whatever it takes to win the game, we will do that,” Sharma said.