The Indian men’s cricket team will start their T20 World Cup 2022 campaign on Sunday (October 23), when in their first Super 12 match, they will be up against arch-rivals Pakistan. The high-voltage encounter between the two former T20 World Cup winners will take place at the iconic Melbourne Cricket Ground in front of close to one lakh fans.
The Indian team, which landed in Australia on October 6 and had a week-long training camp in Perth after which they travelled to Brisbane for two warm-up matches, arrived in Melbourne on Thursday (October 20) and on Friday (October 21), two days before their first game, hit the ground for their first practice session.
The BCCI’s official Twitter handle posted a picture in which the Indian players can be seen at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. The picture was captioned as, “We’re here at the MCG for our first training session ahead of #INDvPAK.”
Sunday’s match will be the third occasion when India will face Pakistan in their T20 World Cup opener. The traditional rivals, who played in the final of the inaugural edition in 2007, met in the opener for the first time in the 2014 edition, in which India emerged victorious by 7 wickets, and then the second meet was staged at Dubai International Stadium last year, in which, for the first time in the history of World Cup matches, Pakistan got the better of India.
They ended a run of 12 straight defeats by winning the contest by 10 wickets. This year they will hope to build on that success, while the Indian team will hope to settle the scores in Melbourne and get their campaign off to a winning start.
Like India, the Pakistan team also arrived in Melbourne on Thursday and will have their first practice session later in the day.
Both India and Pakistan are coming into this match on the back of some positive results. India has won their last two bilateral series against Australia and South Africa and is ranked first in the world in T20Is. On the other hand, Pakistan will also be high on confidence after securing a tri-series win in New Zealand last week.
