T20 WC: History favours Pakistan, form is with England

MELBOURNE: A determined Babar Azam will be aiming to secure his seat beside the great Imran Khan in Pakistan cricket's Hall of Fame as his team takes on a formidable England in the T20 World Cup final here on Sunday.

The passage of 2009 champions into the final could even beat a Hollywood thriller script as they were down and out after the first week of the tournament with morale shattering defeats to arch-rivals India and Zimbabwe.

Pakistan raised hopes of a dramatic comeback in the second week of a tournament with a win over South Africa and a prayer on their lips for some divine intervention.

Just like in 1992, miracle happened when the Netherlands produced a performance for the ages to shock South Africa and out of nowhere, Pakistan were back in contention for a semifinal berth.

Critics say that in cricket, you never know which Pakistan turns on a particular day and the semifinal performance against a well rounded New Zealand side showed that when it comes to playing edge of the seat Russian Roulette', the Green Machines' are second to none.

But just like everyone wants a slice of '92 from Babar's team, the core of this current English team also has a date with history on this very Australian soil.

Seven years ago in 2015, this was the country where England's white ball cricket lay in tatters after they were dumped out of the competition at the group league stage by Bangladesh.

The white ball cricket transformation started with horses for courses approach by the ECB, leading to a sea change in the mindset and intent of the English players. That fearless approach was on full display against India on Thursday.

The Shaheen Shah Afridis, Mohammed Wasim Jr.and the Harris Raufs will need way more than just inspiration to get past the likes of Jos Buttler, Alex Hales, Ben Stokes and Moeen Ali.

These are all sought after practitioners of T20 cricket and all of them have abilities to silence the 80,000 odd Pakistan fans, just like they did with the bulk of the 42,000 Indian fans in Adelaide.