Watch ICC Champions Trophy 2009 India vs Pakistan Live On 26 Sep Saturday Local Time 14:30 SuperSport Park,Centurion.Live Scores on ICC Champions Trophy 2009.
India :
Yuvraj's injury is likely to most affect Dhoni. Of late Dhoni has adopted a more sedate approach and has almost cut out his big shots. It could be said that even when Dhoni tried to play big shots during the final overs of ODIs, and in tournaments like the World Twenty20 and IPL, he could not pull them off consistently. However, with Yuvraj in the team, Dhoni could play the anchoring role, which he has done brilliantly. Time and again he promoted himself, especially when India made a good start, to steer the side through the middle overs, allowing Yuvraj to flex his muscles at the end.
Gambhir pulled out on the eve of India's first match after aggravating the injury during a nets session. He was advised 10 days' rest and his withdrawal from the tri-series was more of a precautionary measure, given the recent spate of injuries.
Squads :
1 Gautam Gambhir, 2 Sachin Tendulkar, 3 Rahul Dravid, 4 Suresh Raina, 5 MS Dhoni (capt/wk), 6 Virat Kohli/Dinesh Karthik, 7 Yusuf Pathan, 8 Harbhajan Singh, 9, 10 and 11 three out of Ishant Sharma, RP Singh, Ashish Nehra and Amit Mishra.
Pakistan :
Younis could have been available for Pakistan's opening Champions Trophy game against West Indies in Johannesburg on Wednesday but the team management decided against taking a risk so that he could be fully fit to play India in Centurion.
India suffered a setback even before their Champions Trophy campaign began, with Yuvraj Singh fracturing his finger during a practice session in Johannesburg. He has been ruled out for six weeks and, though Virat Kohli will replace him, his absence is likely to alter the roles of some of the main members of the batting line-up.
Squads :
1 Imran Nazir, 2 Kamran Akmal (wk), 3 Younis Khan (capt.), 4 Shoaib Malik, 5 Mohammad Yousuf, 6 Umar Akmal, 7 Shahid Afridi, 8 Rana Naved-ul-Hasan, 9 Mohammad Aamer, 10 Umar Gul, 11 Saeed Ajmal.
Stats :
1. Pakistan have beaten India only once in an ICC tournament, in the 2004 Champions Trophy. India have won in the World Cups in 1992, 1996, 1999 and 2003, and also twice in the 2007 World Twenty20.
2. Tendulkar, with 2381 runs to his name, is 22 short of Inzamam-ul-Haq's record aggregate in India-Pakistan matches. In current teams, Dravid (1823) and Afridi (1404) are the other leading run-getters.
