India and Pakistan will resume their iconic rivalry in the ongoing T20 World Cup on June 9 in New York. The last two T20 World Cup meetings between the two sides have ended in a win each for either sides. While Pakistan beat India 10 wickets in the 2021 T20 World Cup, the Rohit Sharma-led side took revenge a year later in Australia with a four-wicket triumph. Both teams had also met in the ODI World Cup last year, and India had also won that game convincingly.

While there is always some buzz surrounding the India-Pakistan matches, former India batter Mohammed Kaif has opted to play down the hype around the blockbuster meeting this time.

According to Kaif, Pakistan have a ‘weak’ team this time around, barring a few match winners. 

“Everyone knows Pakistan’s batting is weak. Fakhar Zaman plays a little fast. If he fires, he can probably win the match alone. Iftikhar Ahmad plays fast but other than that, everyone plays at a strike rate of 120 to 125. You are not that scared of their batting but are scared of their bowling,” Kaif said during a discussion on Star Sports.

Kaif, however, warned India to keep an eye on Pakistan pacer Naseem Shah, who was the star performer for Pakistan when the two sides met during the last T20 World Cup.

“They will have Shaheen Shah Afridi and Naseem Shah. Naseem Shah didn’t come to play the World Cup in India. He was injured, but he is fit here. This will be a bouncy pitch. Naseem Shah is a very good bowler. If you talk about the Melbourne match that Virat Kohli won, if you see Naseem Shah’s first spell, he got a nick and the catch was dropped at slip,” he added.

India squad: Rohit Sharma (c), Hardik Pandya (vc), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant (wk), Sanju Samson (wk), Shivam Dube, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Arshdeep Singh, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohd. Siraj

Reserves: Shubman Gill, Rinku Singh, Khaleel Ahmed and Avesh Khan

Pakistan squad: Babar Azam (c), Abrar Ahmed, Azam Khan, Fakhar Zaman, Haris Rauf, Iftikhar Ahmed, Imad Wasim, Mohammad Abbas Afridi, Mohammad Amir, Mohammad Rizwan, Naseem Shah, Saim Ayub, Shadab Khan, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Usman Khan.