Ahead of the match, Pakistan head coach Mike Hesson caught everyone’s attention when he claimed that Mohammad Nawaz is the best spinner in the world. “I guess the beauty of our side is we’ve got five spinners. We’ve got Mohammad Nawaz, who’s the best spin bowler in the world at the moment, and he’s been ranked that way over the last six months since he’s come back on the side,” he said.

India assistant coach Ryan ten Doeschate was asked about Hesson’s remark and the Dutchman said that everyone’s entitled to their own opinion.

“I think spinners are going to be very important in this competition. If anything, I don’t think it has gripped as much as we anticipated and certainly not like it did earlier in the year when we were here. But spin in general has become a very important part of T20 cricket, and both teams have a lot of spin on offer. And certainly we know how we feel about Varun, Axar and Kuldeep, so everyone’s entitled to their opinion, and they can rank their players wherever they wish,” he said, in the pre-match press conference.

The match has also received criticism from some fans, due to what happened in Pahalgam earlier this year. A terror attack in Pahalgam killed 26 civilians, and it led to India launching Operation Sindoor, which targeted terror camps in Pakistan and PoK.

In their opener vs UAE, India decided to go with three spinners – Varun Chakaravarthy, Kuldeep and Axar Patel – and Jasprit Bumrah as the specialist pacer. Meanwhile, Hardik Pandya and Shivam Dube were the all-rounders.