Team India take on arch-rivals Pakistan in a mouth-watering encounter at the R Premadasa Stadium in the ICC T20 World Cup 2026 on Sunday, with both sides yet unbeaten at the showpiece event.
India opened their campaign with a win over the USA before breezing past Namibia in their second assignment, while Pakistan survived a scare against the Netherlands in the curtain-raiser before notching up a sound win over the USA in their subsequent Group A fixture.
The neighbours are on a collision course in their next outing and Sri Lankan icon, Ajanta Mendis, who defined ‘mystery spin’ for a generation, opined that the biggest weapon Pakistan have against India at the Stadium in Colombo is their spin duo of Abrar Ahmed and Saim Ayub.
“The carrom ball, particularly
when bowled with back-spin, where the revs go back, will ensure the ball skids on here,” he explained.
“And both Abrar and Saim are similar in this aspect. They rely on back spin. So naturally they will get good help at Premadasa.”
Mendis touched up on modern T20 batter’s tendencies in the shortest format of the game to commit to their shots early on, leaving very little room for adjustment against backspin.
“When the pitch is dry, the full effect comes into play. You can get the ball to skid on, which opens up two options to take wickets—bowled and LBW. Even a slight variation is enough because in T20s, batsmen commit quickly to their shots. You can’t make late adjustments to a carrom ball unless you pick it.”
Mendis opined that Ayub and Ahmed have a good range of variations up their sleeve, which could be used to immense effect when the right combination is struck.
“From whatever I’ve seen, they have good control over their variations. In T20s, it’s vital to have variations because you keep the batsman guessing. If you bowl six carrom balls an over, batsmen get used to it. It’s the delivery you should use to surprise batsmen—very few can read the pace off it.”
Indian and Pakistan will clash against each other on the 15th of February at 7:00 PM IST in the headline encounter of the tournament, after initial fears of a Pakistan boycott in solidarity with Bangladesh, who had to be replaced by Scotland at the T20 spectacle in India and Sri Lanka, due to security concerns.
