India vs Pakistan Prediction:India to take revenge for last year's world cup defeat

India will be facing off against Pakistan for the third time this year. The venue will be Melbourne Cricket Ground where the neighbours will battle out for pride and supremacy. The teams will be starting their respective world cup campaigns with this crucial game. Will India take revenge for last year's defeat or will Pakistan come out on top once again?

India form

India has been very successful in T20s this year and has not lost any T20 series. They recently came up from 1-0 behind to win the series 2-1 against South Africa at home. India's last world cup down under had not been a successful one with the team crashing out to Australia in the semi-finals. India's last T20 campaign was also very demoralising as they were handed a defeat in the first game against Pakistan. Jasprit Bumrah and Jadeja are unavailable for the world cup and the men in blue will miss them badly. The Indian team will look to improve on the bowling in this game which is their weakness in recent times. India will be looking to learn from its mistakes and get a victory to start the campaign on a positive note. 

India Predicted Lineup

Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya, Dinesh Karthik, Axar Patel, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Chahal, Shami/Harshal, Arashdeep Singh

Pakistan form

Pakistan won the last game in the Asia cup against India so the confidence of the men in green will be very high. They are also coming into the game with a 10-wicket win against India in the last year's world cup. Pakistan has recently won the tri-nation cup against New Zealand and Bangladesh. They are peaking at just the right time for the world cup. Pakistan's issue is the middle order which they need to sort out to edge over India. Pacer Shaheen Shah Afridi returns to the team and it will be a major boost for the team. Pakistan will be looking to repeat the last year's result with back-to-back wins in the world cup against India. 

Pakistan Predicted Lineup

Babar Azam (Captain), Mohammad Rizwan, Khushdil Shah, Iftikhar Ahmad, Asif Ali, Shadab Khan, Mohammad Nawaz, Shaheen Aridi, Haris Rauf, Naseem Shah

Expert betting tips

The Melbourne pitch has been pretty consistent overall with the ball coming nicely. Batters will enjoy the pitch with free-flowing strokeplay. The bounce will be even but the initial overs will be crucial for the bowling team. The average score on this pitch has been 165 runs in the last two years and we expect a similar scenario. Toss winning captain will look to bowl first in this crucial game. We expect a high-scoring game where India will come out on top.

Prediction

• India to win for 1.53;
• Highest opening partnership - Pakistan for 1.85;
• Team to make highest 6 overs score - India for 1.80