Asia Cup 2016: India vs Pakistan - Player vs Player stats

Pakistan take on India in their opening Asia Cup match on Saturday hoping to avenge their World Cup loss to Ms Dhoni's side, who themselves will be looking to make it two wins out of two, after beating Bangladesh in their opening game of the tournament by 45 runs.

While India undeniably have the upper hand when it comes to head-to-head record between the two in ICC World Cup matches, things have been more even in the Asia Cup. Although India have won more Asia Cups than Pakistan, their record against their arch-rivals isn’t especially impressive.

From 1984 to 2014, they have played each other 10 times, with both teams coming out on top on five occasions. Although India have come out on top in three of the last five meetings in the Asia Cup, the last match in 2014, was won by Pakistan.

With the record between the two sides equal, this game will be about bragging rights as both rivals look to go past the other, at least in terms of number of wins in the Asia Cup.

In this article, 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 T20 career stats and not talent, form or anything else.

India	Pakistan	Who’s better?
Shikhar Dhawan Runs – 296, Avg – 21.14, SR – 119.35	Sharjeel Khan Runs – 102, Avg – 34, SR – 141.66	Sample too small to judge
Rohit Sharma Runs – 1149, Avg – 34.81, SR – 129.53	Mohammad Hafeez Runs – 1514, Avg – 22.93, SR – 114.87	India
Virat Kohli Runs – 1222, Avg – 48.88, SR – 135.47	Umar Akmal Runs – 1506, Avg – 26.89, SR – 124.25	India
Suresh Raina Runs – 1136, Avg – 32.45, SR – 134.91	Shoaib Malik Runs – 1251, Avg – 24.05, SR – 110.61	India
Yuvraj Singh Runs – 1008, Avg – 29.64, SR – 141.57	Imad Wasim Runs – 86, Avg – 21.50, SR – 159.25	Sample too small to judge
MS Dhoni Runs – 918, Avg – 32.78, SR – 119.06	Sarfraz Ahmed Runs – 149, Avg – 21.28, SR – 112.87	Sample too small to judge
Hardik Pandya Runs – 60, Avg – 20, SR – 166.66 Wickets – 4, Avg – 34.25, RPO – 8.05	Anwar Ali Runs – 96, Avg – 16, SR - 141.17 Wickets - 10, Avg – 34.20, RPO – 8.14	Sample too small to judge
Ravindra Jadeja Runs – 91, Avg – 9.10, SR - 86.66 Wickets – 22, Avg – 31.86, RPO – 7.03	Shahid Afridi Runs – 1313, Avg – 18.23, SR – 149.37 Wickets – 91, Avg – 23.90, RPO – 6.60	Pakistan
Ravichandran Ashwin Wickets – 43, Avg – 21.65, RPO – 6.89	Mohammad Amir Wickets – 24, Avg – 23.20, RPO – 7.32	India
Jasprit Bumrah Wickets – 10, Avg – 17.20, RPO – 6.74	Wahab Riaz Wickets – 16, Avg – 24.50, RPO – 8.34	Sample too small to judge
Ashish Nehra Wickets – 23, Avg – 19.86, RPO – 8.30	Mohammad Irfan Wickets – 8, Avg – 39.50, RPO – 7.40	India
India 5 - 1 Pakistan

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

Summary

With plenty of new faces in the Pakistan side, India go into the contest with the more experienced outfit, with several players having played more than 30 T20Is. Unsurpisingly, the Indian batsmen dominate the contest and are expected to come out on top.

As far as the bowling is concerned, India surprisingly come out on top, while Shahid Afridi is the only experienced bwoler in the Pakistani ranks, India have several experienced heads to call on, which is a surprise because historically Pakistan have always had the better bowling attack than the Men in Blue.

On paper, India should win this match comfortably thanks to their experience and more explosive players, but games aren't won on paper. And India will have to to do well and battle the conditions if they are to come out on top in this encounter.