Pressure on Pakistan for the big showdown with India at World T20, remarks Gautam Gambhir

India and Pakistan, the two arch-rivals have not gone face to face in a bilateral series since 2013. But in the T20 World Cup encounters, they have locked horns in five games, with India ending up as the victorious side in all the games. The last game between the two sides took place at the World Cup 2019 in England in where India cruised to an easy victory. 

Former Indian opener Gautam Gambhir has picked India as the favourites against the Men in Green, given the history between both sides. He feels that Babar Azam's men will be under tremendous pressure in the ICC mega event.

"I am sure it will add a lot of pressure on Pakistan because India has got 5-0 on Pakistan (World Cups). We should not be talking about whether there will be pressure on India, there is going to be a lot of pressure on Pakistan because the expectations are going to be high in Pakistan as well, asserted Gambhir.

He added that India have a far better side than Pakistan but in T20 cricket anything can happen. 

"At the moment if you see, India is far superior to Pakistan. Yes, in a T20 format, anyone can beat anyone. We should not take any team for granted, teams like Afghanistan can create upsets. It's the same with Pakistan. But there will be pressure on Pakistan," 

The southpaw also stated that it would be better to play against Pakistan at the beginning of the tournament so that the squad can channelize their focus in an ideal manner.

"When we won the 2007 T20 World Cup, our first game was against Scotland which was washed out. Practically, our first game was against Pakistan," he said.

"That's exactly what I mentioned. It's important to play Pakistan in the early stages of the competition. You don't want to keep thinking about Pakistan. You can finish it off early and then concentrate and the rest of the tournament. It's going to be the same for the fans and the rest of the country."