Karachi: Former Pakistan skipper Javed Miandad believes the India-Pakistan match of the Champions Trophy will begin on an equal footing for the arch rivals and the team that sustains the pressure will emerge as victories.
"Both the teams in my book are equally balanced. While India has a stronger batting line up despite the absence of Yuvraj Singh Pakistan has a much better and more penetrative bowling attack," Miandad told PTI.
"Both teams have their own strengths and weaknesses but definitely having players of the calibre of Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid is a big plus for India. But I think we have the bowling to seriously challenge the Indian batsmen. So the match will start on an even kneel," he said.
Miandad feels the hype generated for the match will create a lot of pressure on the players of both the team.
"Which means basically that the team that keeps its nerves and cool will win," he added.
Miandad said it will be an important match considering the current political tensions between the nations.
"Things have changed a bit now people don't react that strongly to the result. But I think this match at centurion is important in the backdrop of the relations between the two countries," he said.
Miandad said if injury-hit Younis Khan returns to lead the side against India it will give Pakistan a morale boost.
There were always apprehensions about his not performing against big teams. He has proved everybody wrong and become the No 1 Test batsman. I am very proud of him as a team-mate," he said.
India will open its Champions Trophy campaign against arch-rivals Pakistan on Saturday and Yuvraj could not hide his disappointment of not being a part of the high-voltage encounter.
"Because we were starting our campaign in the tournament with a match against Pakistan, the atmosphere would've been really good and charged up. The intensity of the team would also be really high so would've been great to be a part of the team," he said.
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