It's THAT match once again

The first match that India and Pakistan played in the tournament was against each other. After the way that one turned out, it would have taken a highly optimistic Pakistan fan to assume they'd play India again in the final.

Yet, here we are.

For India, this won't be an unexpected place to be at. Nor is it unfamiliar. In the last decade or so, India have again and again shown that they can raise their game when it comes to global competitions. It comes as no surprise then, that they have reached 4 finals and 2 semifinals in the last 7 ICC tournaments. Their batting, always the stronger suite, is rarely not world-beating form in these competitions, and somehow, their bowlers also find a strong footing irrespective of the conditions they are playing in. In the last World Cup played in Australia, they took 70 wickets in 7 matches, a feat that their bowlers would find hard to replicate anywhere.

In the Champions Trophy too, India has been on a rampage. They're living the Virat Kohli's mantra of success. Setting up a boring formula for getting the right results. Get a steady start with the bat, keep wickets in hand, consolidate in the middle, and surge at the end. With the ball too, they know what to do, have incisive pacers make early inroads, then strangle the opposition with spin in the middle overs, and then let them implode with some accurate bowling at the death. Since the 2015 World Cup, this formula has worked for them much more often than not. They had a minor blip, against Sri Lanka earlier in the tournament, but you could see it was just an aberration. 

Pakistan, on the other hand, is doing Pakistan, In ICC tournaments, you never know which Pakistan shows up. Sometimes, it's a side filled with lightening fast bowlers and assured batsmen capable of complimenting their bowling. Sometimes, their bowling looks club cricket level and their batting looks like a side that bowling attack can bowl out. Often, both these facets of Pakistan are on display in the same tournament. Like what has happened this time around.

After not turning up at all against India in the opener, Pakistan somehow scraped past the top-ranked South Africa, and easily got past Sri Lanka to make the semis. Faced with the rampaging England, Pakistan convincingly thumped them to everyone's bewilderment. they came into this tournament as the bottom ranked team, and are now one match away from winning it. 

That is as Pakistan as Pakistan can get. Unfortunately for them, they're up against India. And, as has been the case many times in the past decade, against India is when they go full Pakistan. And as everyone aware of cricket would tell you, one should never go full Pakistan.

Change may be the only constant, but when it comes to India-Pakistan matches, constancy has been the only constant. Like many of their past encounters, this one would also come down to Indian batting vs the Pakistan bowling.

The Indian top three have been in such superb form that the batsmen below them hardly have had to bat. Shikhar Dhawan was struggling to keep his place on the team, but he's kept it for quite some time now. He's the leading run scorer in the tournament where he topped the batting charts and expected to top the batting charts for the second time in a row. The only threat he has is his opening partner. Rohit Sharma, coming off a successful IPL campaign, Rohit has been batting with the lazy elegance he's always been associated with. Captain Virat Kohli is in the great form as he always is. He must have been desperate to improve his batting records in England, and he's done it in some style. He's the third Indian in the top five run-getters. Each of them has hit three fifty-plus scores in four matches. And in whatever limited opportunities they've had, Yuvraj Singh, MS Dhoni, and Hardik Pandya have shown that they are in a good nick too.

The bowling attack that they'll be facing, will be different from the one they faced in the opening match at Edgbaston. Even though there is expected to only one change in personnel, there's going to be a big change in their persona. Wahab Riaz, who was out injured after registering the worst figures in the history of the Champions Trophy. has been replaced by Junaid Khan. Junaid has an excellent record against India, especially against Kohli, who he has dismissed thrice while conceding only two runs. Mohammad Amir has made a comeback after being injured, and Hasan Ali, who was thought to be the fouth best fast bowler in that line-up. has turned out to be the top wicket taker in the tournament. 

All said and done, if India stick to their monotonous but heavily effective methodology, Pakistan is going to need a few surprises more than they can manage.