ICC this week released the fixtures of the T20 World Cup 2022 in Australia and the arch-rivals, India and Pakistan are once again going to take on each other. They are placed in Group 2 of the Super 12 stage with Bangladesh, and South Africa.
Former Pakistan speedster Shoaib Akhtar believes they are going to beat India once again easily. India and Pakistan will clash at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) on October 23.
Last year in T20 World Cup 2021, Pakistan had defeated India by 10 wickets and they later went on to play the semi-finals before getting knocked out.
"We will beat India again in Melbourne. Pakistan is a better side than India in T20 cricket. It's the Indian media that make unnecessary pressure on their team whenever we have the clash of both countries in cricket, it's normal for India to lose," Akhtar told ANI.
The 46-year-old, who's currently in Oman for the ongoing Legends League Cricket (LLC), further spoke on grooming Jasprit Bumrah for the captaincy role. He wants India to pick the speedster as their Test captain in the future, and appoint him as the vice-captain for now.
"Why don't you look at fast bowlers as captain. Kapil Dev was a fast bowler, wasn't he a great captain? I don't know why there is this notion that batsmen are more clever than us. For Pakistan, Imran Khan, Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis have all been captains," Shoaib said on Sports Today.
"A fast bowler always goes for a win. I am not saying that the batters don't but it is a little different. Jasprit Bumrah should be made the vice-captain and groomed for captaincy. Groom fast bowlers and all-rounders. This trend of thinking that only batters can be captain is wrong," he added.
Recently, Virat Kohli quit Test captaincy after India's 2-1 Test series loss against South Africa. KL Rahul had led India in the second Test match in the absence of Kohli.
While Rohit Sharma was the vice-captain of the Test side, BCCI has still not announced Team India's Test captain after Kohli's decision to step down from captaincy.
(With ANI and Sports Today Inputs)
