ICC World Cup 2015: India vs Pakistan - Player vs Player stats

Can Misbah-ul-Haq inspire Pakistan to a first World Cup win against India?

India and Pakistan face off on Sunday in one of the most eagerly anticipated matches in the history of ODI cricket. Cricket Australia chief executive James Sutherland stated yesterday that the match will be the most watched cricket match ever.

The Indian team hold a 5-0 record over their arch-rivals when it comes to matches played in the 50-over World Cup and that is a record MS Dhoni’s men would want to keep going when the two teams meet at the Adelaide Oval.

Despite India’s unbeaten record against Pakistan in World Cups, they enter the 2015 tournament after a winless Test series against Australia and a dreadful Carlton Mid tri-series, where they again failed to win a single game. Pakistan played a couple of ODIs in New Zealand and even they failed to register a victory.

India managed to win one of their two World Cup warm-up matches, beating minnows Afghanistan after losing to the number-one ranked team in ODI cricket, Australia. Pakistan, on the other hand, come into the tournament with some confidence after defeating Bangladesh and England in their warm-up games.

Here, we statistically compare the expected playing XIs of both sides and attempt to judge which team will start the contest as favourites. The winner between each duo has been judged only by ODI career stats and not talent, form or anything else.

India	Pakistan	Who’s better?
Shikhar Dhawan Runs - 2095, Avg - 42.75, SR - 89.56	Nasir Jamshed Runs - 1413, Avg - 33.64, SR - 76.04	India
Rohit Sharma Runs - 3890, Avg - 38.90, SR - 81.55	Ahmed Shehzad Runs - 1985, Avg - 34.82, SR - 72.02	India
Virat Kohli Runs - 6232, Avg - 51.50, SR - 90.17	Younis Khan Runs - 7197, Avg - 31.56, SR - 75.32	India
Ajinkya Rahane Runs - 1376, Avg - 30.57, SR - 76.57	Misbah-ul-Haq Runs - 4772, Avg - 42.99, SR - 73.65	Pakistan
Suresh Raina Runs - 5104, Avg - 35.44, SR - 92.98	Haris Sohail Runs - 309, Avg - 34.33, SR - 79.02	India
MS Dhoni Runs - 8262, Avg - 52.29, SR - 88.84	Umar Akmal Runs - 2749, Avg - 35.24, SR - 86.47	India
Ravindra Jadeja Runs - 1696, Avg - 33.92, SR - 84.42 Wickets - 134, Avg - 32.76, RPO - 4.81	Shahid Afridi Runs - 7948, Avg - 23.58, SR - 116.79 Wickets - 393, Avg - 33.96, RPO - 4.62	Pakistan
Ravichandran Ashwin Wickets - 120, Avg - 32.64, RPO - 4.90	Yasir Shah Wickets - 2, Avg - 25.50, RPO - 5.10	Sample too small to judge
Bhuvneshwar Kumar Wickets - 45, Avg - 37.15, RPO - 4.62	Wahab Riaz Wickets - 61, Avg - 32.09, RPO - 5.64	Tie
Mohammad Shami Wickets - 70, Avg - 26.74, RPO - 5.67	Sohail Khan Wickets - 6, Avg - 33.16, RPO - 4.71	Sample too small to judge
Umesh Yadav Wickets - 49, Avg - 36.44, RPO - 5.90	Mohammad Irfan Wickets - 57, Avg - 29.92, RPO - 4.89	Pakistan
India 5 - 3 Pakistan

NOTE: The lineups mentioned above are predicted teams and might not actually be the XIs that take to the field on Sunday.

Summary

India seem to have the more experienced side going into the contest with many of their stars playing a lot of ODI cricket in the recent past. As expected, Indian batsmen dominate the contest against their Pakistani counterparts.

Misbah-ul-Haq’s team, though, have a better bowling attack than the Men in Blue and that comes as no surprise, as this has been the case historically too.

As they say, no match is won on paper. Hence, India having the stronger team will count for nothing if they don’t deliver the goods in the middle when the moment arises.