Key points
- Match held at Queens Sports Club
- India lead head-to-head record 16–12
- Pakistan seek semi-final qualification with victory
BULAWAYO: Pakistan won the toss and chose to field first in a must-win encounter against arch-rivals India at the ICC Men’s Under-19 World Cup on Sunday at Queens Sports Club.
Squads
India: Ayush Mhatre (c), R.S. Ambrish, Kanishk Chouhan, D. Deepesh, Mohamed Enaan, Aaron George, Abhigyan Kundu, Kishan Kumar Singh, Vihaan Malhotra, Udhav Mohan, Henil Patel, Khilan A. Patel, Harvansh Singh, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, and Vedant Trivedi.
Pakistan: Farhan Yousaf (c), Usman Khan, Abdul Subhan, Ahmed Hussain, Ali Hasan Baloch, Ali Raza, Daniyal Ali Khan, Hamza Zahoor (wk), Huzaifa Ahsan, Momin Qamar, Mohammad Sayyam, Abdul Qadir, Niqab Shafiq, Sameer Minhas and Umar Zaib.
Head-to-head
Historically, the two arch-rivals have faced each other 29 times, with the Men in Blue dominating with 16 wins, followed by the Green Shirts with 12 victories, while one match ended with no result.
Matches played: 29
India U19 won: 16
Pakistan U19 won: 12
No result: 1
The last time both teams faced each other was during the ACC Men’s U19 Asia Cup 2025 final, where Pakistan dominated India by a massive 191-run margin to lift the title.
Batting first, the national side posted a mammoth 347-8 in 50 overs, courtesy of a fiery knock by opener Sameer Minhas, who scored 172 off 113 deliveries with the help of 17 fours and nine sixes, while Ahmed Hussain contributed 56 runs.
Green Shirts
In reply, India were bundled out for 156, with tail-end batter Deepesh Devendran top-scoring with 36 off 16 deliveries, including six fours and two sixes, while the rest of the batters failed to make significant contributions.
For Pakistan, Ali Raza registered impressive figures of 4/42 in 6.2 overs, while Mohammad Sayyam, Abdul Subhan and Huzaifa Ahsan claimed two wickets each.
India, despite being in a comfortable position, have not yet qualified for the semi-finals despite remaining unbeaten throughout the tournament and will be eyeing a win over Pakistan to seal a spot in the top four.
Pakistan, meanwhile, will look to continue their strong run against India in major events, having recently reached consecutive Asia Cup finals. However, a win is crucial for the Green Shirts if they are to progress to the semi-finals.
India U19: W, W, W, W, W
Pakistan U19: W, W, W, L, W (most recent first)
