Shoaib Akhtar: “India is the hottest favorite to win the World Cup until they play Pakistan, because that is going to be a very crucial game for India as Pakistan is going to come very hard at them”

Image courtesy of: ESPNcricinfo

Legendary Pakistan pace bowler Shoaib Akhtar believes that India are currently favourites to win the World Cup, but added that this could change when they go up against the men in green on Sunday.

Pakistan will play India in Manchester, and the men in green will be looking to snap their winless streak against their arch-rivals as India have triumphed in their six World Cup meetings to date.

However, Pakistan can take confidence from the fact that they demolished India by 180 runs in the Champions Trophy final in 2017.

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Pakistan have endured a turbulent start to their World Cup campaign as they lost their World Cup opener to the West Indies by seven wickets.

However, they bounced back in brilliant fashion as they beat England by 14 runs.

They couldn’t build on that win, however, as their third match against Sri Lanka was washed out.

As for India, they have won both their matches thus far as they beat South Africa by six wickets and Australia by 36 runs.

However, Akhtar is backing Pakistan to beat Australia in Taunton on Wednesday and end their winless streak against India a few days later.

He added that should India lose to Pakistan, their tag as favourites to win the World Cup could disappear.

“India is the hottest favorite to win the World Cup until they play Pakistan, because that is going to be a very crucial game for India as Pakistan is going to come very hard at them,” he was quoted as saying by the Business Recorder. “But before that, the confidence of Pakistan will be very high because they [will] also be looking to beat Australia at Taunton.”

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