Former Pakistan player Moin Khan has come out on a limb and predicted that Pakistan will beat India in the upcoming 2019 cricket World Cup in England.
It must be noted that Pakistan has never managed to beat India in the 50-over format of the quadrennial event. The two nations have met six times previously and on every occasion, India has come out trumps. But Moin Khan believes that his country will finally break the jinx in the 2019 edition of the event.
The former World Cup winner said that Pakistan will be entering the World Cup on the back of impressive performances against England, Australia and South Africa. He believes that this will put them in good stead to succeed in the quadrennial event.
"This should be a very interesting World Cup and I am backing Pakistan to beat India. Our boys are in good spirits and it is good they will go into the competition after having played ODI matches against South Africa, Australia and England," ICC quoted Moin, as saying.
The 47-year-old referenced the final of the Champions Trophy to put forward his argument. ""I say this [Pakistan will beat India] because our boys beat them [India] in the Champions Trophy two years back and I just feel that in English conditions in June we have better bowlers," he said.
Forwarding his argument based on a better bowling attack, Moin said that the Pakistani bowlers have variety, talent and depth. "This present team is very capable of recording a first win over India in a World Cup because there is talent, there is depth and variety," he said.
In fact, India's first meeting with Pakistan in a World Cup was in 1992 where the two teams played each other in the round-robin stage. India won only two of their 8 matches in the tournament and one of them was a 43-run victory against their geographical neighbours. Incidentally, Pakistan lifted their maiden and only 50-over World Cup trophy later in the tournament.
The remaining five victories came in the World Cups of 1996, 1999, 2003, 2011 and 2015. India is also unbeaten in the T20 World Cup against Pakistan. The most famous victory in the 20-over format came in the final of the inaugural World Cup of the format. Herein, Joginder Sharma dismissed Misbah-Ul-Haq in the final over of a dramatic match to win the game by 5 runs and consequently the World Cup trophy.
Incidentally, the 2019 World Cup will be played in the format the 1992 version of the same was wherein all participating teams will play each other once and finally the top 4 teams will advance to the semi-final. Thereon, the tournament will be a knockout.
The 2019 cricket World Cup begins on May 30 and the final will be played on July 14.
