T20 WC: Chakravarthy, Jadeja as two spinners? Predicting Virat Kohli-led India's playing XI vs Pakistan

The T20 World Cup 2021's Super 12 round commenced on Saturday (October 23). After the exciting Qualifiers, the Super 12 opening day also lived upto expectations with two big matches, as Australia beat South Africa in a last-over finish and England thrashed West Indies by 6 wickets on Saturday (October 24).

Day 2 in the Super 12 will see two matches. However, the second game will have all the attention as India will be taking on Pakistan in both sides' respective tournament-openers, at the iconic Dubai International Cricket Stadium, Dubai on Sunday evening. For weeks, the hype surrounding the marquee face-off has been huge and the encounter is expected to live upto expectations and go down the wire. 

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Both sides have a solid line-up, comprising several big-ticket players. For India, they have problems of plenty as Virat Kohli-led Men in Blue have too many options for the top and middle-lower order whereas the bowling line-up also have too many superstars to look forward to. Here's predicting India's XI for the Pakistan clash:

It goes without saying that India's top-order will comprise KL Rahul, Rohit Sharma and Kohli. The Big Three will be expected to go bonkers from the word go. For the unversed, Rohit has back-to-back tons in the last two Indo-Pak face-offs. 

The middle and lower-order is very likely to comprise Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant, Hardik Pandya and Ravindra Jadeja. With this, India will also have two bowling options in Jadeja and Hardik (if he bowls).

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The bowling line-up's final selection can be a headache for the Indian team management. However, they are expected to go ahead with Varun Chakravarthy (over R Ashwin who hasn't played a limited-overs game since 2017), Mohammed Shami, Jasprit Bumrah and Bhuvneshwar Kumar.

Ashwin is also an experienced campaigner and did well in the warm-up encounters (claiming two scalps vs Australia) but there is a chance that India might play Charkavarthy to surprise the opposition. Moreover, the conditions on offer will determine whether Bhuvi appears in India's XI. Without a doubt, he is definitely a big-match player but his form hasn't been at its best. If he misses out, Shardul Thakur will be the frontrunner to replace him.

India's likely playing XI vs Pakistan: Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja, Rishabh Pant, Hardik Pandya, Varun Chakravarthy, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, Bhuvneshwar Kumar/Shardul Thakur

On the other hand, Pakistan will also have to choose between Shoaib Malik's experience and Haider Ali. 

Pakistan's likely playing XI vs India: Babar Azam (c), Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Fakhar Zaman, Mohammad Hafeez, Shoaib Malik/Haider Ali, Asif Ali, Imad Wasim, Shadab Khan, Hasan Ali, Haris Rauf, Shaheen Afridi