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Farokh Engineer: India-Pakistan Is More Than Just A Cricket Match

The India-Pakistan match in Adelaide is set to attract a global audience of more than one billion
The India-Pakistan match in Adelaide is set to attract a global audience of more than one billion
©REUTERS / Action Images

So far, the two favourites have won as expected and both New Zealand and Australia were worthy winners against Sri Lanka and England. Australia are looking good - they can bat, bowl and field although they had a bit of a hiccup today when they were three down but they still came through.

New Zealand, as expected, beat Sri Lanka quite easily. Far from being "dark horses", they are right at the front along with Australia and South Africa and they could even spring some surprises.

If I had to pick a winner of the tournament at this very early stage, I would say Australia. They are looking very difficult to beat, they look the most complete side to me but it will be them, South Africa or New Zealand for me.

Tomorrow then, we have India against Pakistan and that's going to be a humdinger. Half of India have gone to Adelaide!

Look, India v Pakistan is not just a cricket match - it's war.

This is the needle match. Lancashire-Yorkshire is nothing compared to this.

Pakistan have a very bad track record which they'll try to put right but India are in defiant mood, MS Dhoni is very confident despite the losses he has suffered in Australia over the last three months.

It's advantage India because they have been playing in Australia and they have a lot of experience now of Australian wickets so they should definitely be favourites.

However, you can never count Pakistan out. If Shahid Afridi and others get going, they could be dangerous.

Although I make India favourites to win tomorrow, if they are to challenge overall, they have to play far better cricket than they have been doing. OK, they've been playing in Australia, against Australia, the best side in the world and in spite of losing all of those games, they've done pretty well at times, so they can take pride in that.

They've got some very fine players. Injuries have been a big problem for the Indian bowlers. If they bowl according to the field then they'll put less pressure on the Indian batsmen because once you give away a total of between 300 and 350 you are under huge pressure.

Lycamobile ambassador Farokh Engineer was talking to John Pennington.

© Cricket World 2015