Cricket

T20 World Cup 2025/26, IND vs PAK 27th Match, Group A Match Preview

February 14, 2026
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Big picture

Well, everything about this game is big picture. If we needed a reminder of how much in cricket is sustained by this fixture, it came over the past two weeks, when it dangled over the precipice of not happening at all. The result of an India-Pakistan match might feel like it means everything, but, as the ICC view has appeared for at least the last decade and a half, it doesn’t have to mean anything at all. It just needs to happen.

And then there’s the rivalry. Indian captain Suryakumar Yadav triumphally declared, after the second of three Asia Cup wins over Pakistan in Dubai, that this was no longer a rivalry, as if it were solely the cricket played within the boundary that had set its terms. India may now measure its cricketing standards against teams that play superior cricket to Pakistan, but crowds still pack stadiums more consistently against this side, and it draws more eyeballs than games against purportedly better competition. In Pakistan, meanwhile, there has never really been an attempt to deny that a win against India matters most of all.

Perhaps it is absence that has made Pakistan supporters’ hearts grow fonder. They have won three games against India in the past decade, and two of them have become iconic enough to be referred to in numerical shorthand. You’d need little further explanation in Pakistan beyond “180 runs” and “152-0” to know what you were talking about. But while they represent two of Pakistan’s three wins, the 17 defeats on the other side of the ledger have clustered into one sad muckheap.

The slightly smaller picture is that this game doesn’t have much riding on it from the tournament’s perspective. Both sides have come through scares to compile 2-0 records against less fancied opposition, and a defeat is unlikely to complicate progress to the next round for either. This, really, is a game that exists for its own sake, outside the context of the tournament it is a part of.

On the field, well, we know the score. India have both a cricketing and psychological edge, having won their three games against Pakistan at the Asia Cup in three different ways. They won with the ball in the first, the bat in the second, and the mind in the final, opening up further wounds in a rivalry whose tide Pakistan are struggling to find ways to reverse. India’s top order is uniquely devastating in T20Is, their middle order has heft, their spin has dazzling world-class variety, and their fast bowling has Jasprit Bumrah. There are increasingly few nits to pick with any of it.

It can feel bleak at times for Pakistan, but only those who know little about Pakistan cricket will assume they go in without hope. Curiously, for all the gulf that has opened up between these sides, Pakistan will be scratching their heads wondering how they don’t come into this match with a three-game T20 World Cup win streak over India. After their decisive win in 2021, they let victory slip from their hands in Melbourne in 2022 and in New York in 2024. It is where they will have learned how vast the difference between hope and belief is, and in moments where the match presents them with opportunities, as those two and last year’s Asia Cup final did, Pakistan will need to find a way to grasp them.

India against Pakistan gets talked about a lot, and almost never for the right reasons. But, for a few hours on Sunday, that’s exactly what could happen. That, in itself, is perhaps a good enough reason to get a game on Sunday, and, with any luck, a good one.

Form guide

India WWWLW (last five completed T20Is, most recent first)
Pakistan WWWWW

In the spotlight: Hardik Pandya and Sahibzada Farhan

Perhaps no player in this India side loves playing against Pakistan more than Hardik Pandya. Against this opposition, he has a better bowling average, a better bowling economy rate and a better bowling strike rate than his overall T20I numbers. While his T20I batting numbers against Pakistan are not great, every Pakistan fan remembers his 43-ball 76 in a losing cause in the 2017 Champions Trophy final. In the last three games, he has dismissed Babar Azam, Saim Ayub and Fakhar Zaman, with his two-in-one credentials in this fixture offering India the ultimate luxury.

Sahibzada Farhan has played three matches against India, all within two weeks of each other. He scored 40 in the first, following up with two half-centuries, and helped Pakistan get off to dream starts in two games against India at the Asia Cup. Most famous was his relative comfort in dealing with Jasprit Bumrah, against whom he scored at a strike rate of 150 without once losing his wicket. He struck him for three sixes during that purple patch, more than any other batter has managed against Bumrah in their T20I careers. If Pakistan are to finally get over the line against India, they may require the same overperformance at the top, even if Bumrah is a hard man to keep down for long.

Team news: An extra spinner for India?

Abhishek Sharma has made a recovery in time for the game and will replace Sanju Samson. India wish to add another spin option, which likely means one of Washington Sundar or Kuldeep Yadav will come in for Arshdeep Singh.

India (probable): 1 Ishan Kishan (wk), 2 Abhishek Sharma, 3 Tilak Varma, 4 Suryakumar Yadav (capt), 5 Hardik Pandya, 6 Shivam Dube, 7 Rinku Singh, 8 Axar Patel, 9 Kuldeep Yadav, 10 Varun Chakravarthy, 11 Jasprit Bumrah.

Pakistan have shown a willingness to stick with Babar Azam in the middle order, and with a commanding performance over USA, there is little immediate clamour for change. There remains a possibility of Fakhar Zaman being brought in, possibly as Usman Khan’s replacement, which would hand Farhan the gloves. Wholesale changes, however, are unlikely.

Pakistan (probable): 1 Sahibzada Farhan (wk), 2 Saim Ayub, 3 Salman Agha (capt), 4 Babar Azam, 5 Shadab Khan, 6 Usman Khan (wk)/Fakhar Zaman, 7 Mohammad Nawaz, 8 Faheem Ashraf, 9 Shaheen Shah Afridi, 10 Usman Tariq, 11 Abrar Ahmed

Pitch and conditions: Rain in the air

The match will be played on the same pitch where Australia vs Zimbabwe was. There was a touch of grass on the deck as of Saturday, suggesting a flatter deck than normal at this venue. The bigger question, though, concerns the weather, with rain the previous day requiring the covers in the afternoon. On the evening itself, there remains a significant chance of precipitation.

India arrived in Colombo late on Friday night and have had only one session at the ground. Pakistan have had the luxury of not travelling in this tournament, but they have not played at the Premadasa so far, with both their wins coming at the SSC.

Stats and trivia: Abhishek vs Shaheen

  • India lead the head-to-head record against Pakistan in T20 World Cups by 7-1.
  • Abhishek’s strike rate of 194.45 in T20Is is the best among batters who have scored at least 500 runs since the start of 2024.
  • Since the start of 2024, Shaheen Shah Afridi has taken 15 wickets in the first over in T20Is, the most by any bowler from Full Member teams.
  • In eight bowling innings against Pakistan in T20Is, Pandya has never gone wicketless, taking 15 at an average of 14.60 and a strike rate of 11.00. The only T20I where he wasn’t among the wickets was the one he never bowled in – Pakistan’s ten-wicket win at the 2021 T20 World Cup.
  • Mohammad Nawaz is three wickets short of becoming the fourth Pakistan bowler to 100 in T20Is.

Quotes

“When you play an India-Pakistan game, it is more about the occasion. It is a platform. You can say what you want, like it is just another game. But you know which game you are going to play. And we don’t play them often.”
Suryakumar Yadav doesn’t hide behind the cliche of “it’s like any other game”

“We are based in Colombo and playing all our matches here, but I don’t know how that is an advantage. On the ground, you have to play good cricket, you will need to execute plans, otherwise you can’t win. Just because you are based here, that doesn’t mean you will win the match.”
Salman Agha doesn’t set much store in not needing to move around at this World Cup

Danyal Rasool is ESPNcricinfo’s Pakistan correspondent. @Danny61000


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