While India gears up for their second match against New Zealand in Dubai, Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma will be keeping a keen eye on tonight's New Zealand vs Pakistan match in Sharjah as the result of the match could do the Men in Blue a favour.
In a much-awaited contest, India-Pakistan face off after a gap of two years in their opening group 2 match of Super 12 at Dubai International Stadium on Sunday.
India fine-tuned their T20 World Cup preparations with a convincing nine-wicket win over Australia in their final warm-up game here on Wednesday but the sixth bowler's slot remained a worry as even Virat Kohli rolled his arm over going into the tournament proper.
Former India skipper MS Dhoni was on Wednesday brought in as mentor of India's 15-member T20 World Cup squad by the BCCI, a move that took everyone by surprise. Ashwin also returned to India's white-ball set-up alongside the trio of Ishan Kishan, Axar Patel and Varun Chakravarthy.
India and Pakistan were on Friday placed in the same group for the T20 World Cup as the ICC announced the pools for the event, set to be played in the UAE and Oman from October 17 to November 14.
Former India pacer Ajit Agarkar feels Shikhar Dhawan's place in the T20I squad isn't guaranteed when Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul are there in the team management's plans. Dhawan will captain India in three ODIs and three T20Is and yet his place in the squad that will play in the T20 World Cup is still in doubt.
Team management will hope Hardik Pandya returns to bowling soon at the upcoming Sri Lanka-India series two months away.
Having outsmarted England in challenging conditions, a confident India will back themselves to win the series-decider here on Saturday and take another firm step towards finalising their core for the T20 World Cup. India will now be hoping K L Rahul fires at the top, having showed some form in the previous game following scores of 1, 0, 0.
The International Cricket Council (ICC) on July 20 announced the postponement of this year's Men's T20 World Cup in Australia due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
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