Manjrekar reveals why India will have advantage over Pakistan on New York pitch

Former Indian cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar has cautioned the Pakistan cricket team ahead of their T20 World Cup 2024 clash against India at Nassau County International Cricket Stadium in New York on June 9.

Speaking to ESPNCricinfo, Manjrekar stated that India’s superior batting lineup can dominate tricky pitch conditions.

“If the pitch stays the same like Sri Lanka vs South Africa, it would benefit India more. They can easily beat Pakistan because Indian batters have the technique to survive. Ones and twos are Virat Kohli’s game. In such conditions, Pakistani batters struggle a bit,” Manjrekar said.

Manjrekar also noted that the outfield is very slow, with a lot of sand, requiring some work from the ICC.

“It is a very, very slow outfield. And you can see every time the ball pitches into the outfield, the sand sort of bursts through. So there’s a lot of sand base there. So yeah, I think there is some work for the ICC to do,” he said.

He added that Pakistan’s bowling lacks the profiles to challenge India’s world-class batting lineup effectively.

“Pakistan’s bowling is also not like-hit the deck, good length. Haris Rauf might do that otherwise pace and swing as Arshdeep does, similarly, Shaheen Afridi will bowl. If there’s the same pitch, India’s work will only get easier because batting will counter that challenge much better,” he concluded.