India and Pakistan are set to clash once again in the mega ICC event, T20 World Cup 2022. ICC released the fixtures of the tournament and the arch-rivals are placed in Group 2 with their face-off scheduled on October 23.

In their last meeting, Pakistan got the better of India and won the match by 10 wickets. They had reached the T20 World Cup 2021 semi-final, where the Babar Azam-led side lost to Australia.

Former Pakistan cricketer Mohammed Hafeez has opened up on the high-voltage India-Pakistan match and said players deal with a lot of pressure during the match. 

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“ICC always schedules it as the first game so it can get engagement,” Hafeez said on Sports Tak. “Both teams have pressure. I've played many India-Pakistan games, and when you lose the first match, it always has an impact. When we won the first match, you could see that India's body language wasn't the same anymore. Because the amount of pressure a player bears is huge, and if you fail to win, it gets very difficult.”

Hafeez further spoke on the Indian cricket team and said expect for Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma, no one in the side can handle the pressure of the India-Pakistan match.

“Personally, I feel Pakistan is growing high. In India, Virat and Rohit Sharma are two players who can touch par runs when they play. I'm not trying to say that others are not good. But if these two players don't play well in an India-Pakistan game, the others cannot handle that pressure,” said Hafeez.

"I believe it will always be a good game. Virat and Rohit are very good batsmen, but others cannot handle the pressure of the India-Pakistan game.

India had managed to win three out of their five Super 12 matches in T20 World Cup 2021. They went on to lose against New Zealand, after being mauled by Pakistan which ended their hope for the semi-finals. This time the tournament is scheduled to be played in Australia. 

(With Sports Tak Inputs)