India and Pakistan will resume their on-field rivalry as the two teams square off in their first fixture of the T20 World Cup 2021 on Sunday (October 24). It will be after 2 years that the inaugural T20 WC champions will face the 2009 T20 WC Champions. They last squared off in the 2019 50-over World Cup which took place in England. Owing to the political relations between the two countries, the two teams now only square off in ICC events and Asia Cups.

A week before the all-important fixture, former Pakistan pacer Shoaib Akhtar has shared a pic while chilling out with former India captains Kapil Dev, Sunil Gavaskar and other legends of the game.

Gavaskar has been in UAE since September for commentary duties and it looks like other former cricketers will also be taking over the analyst’s role during the ICC event.

“Chilling with the best of the best. The great Zaheer Abbas, Sunil Gavaskar & Kapil Dev.  All set for the cricket ka maha muqabla,” Akhtar wrote on Twitter.

Like 50-over World Cups, India have an undefeated record against Pakistan in the shortest format as well. Led by MS Dhoni, India defeated Pakistan in 2007 (twice), 2012, 2014 and 2016. Dhoni has retired from international cricket but will be part of the team for the fixture as he will be donning the mentor’s hat for the complete duration of the ICC tournament.

Following the league stage fixture against Pakistan, India will face New Zealand, Afghanistan and two qualifying teams next. The T20 WC has kicked off and the teams are taking part in the Qualifiers to make it to the Super 12s.

India squad for T20 World Cup: Virat Kohli (Capt), Rohit Sharma (vc), KL Rahul, Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant (wk), Ishan Kishan (wk), Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Rahul Chahar, Ravichandran Ashwin, Shardul Thakur, Varun Chakravarthy, Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohammed Shami.