The T20 World Cup starts on Sunday with co-hosts USA facing Canada in Dallas. India's first match will be against Ireland in New York on June 5. Their second match is the one that is arguably the most anticipated fixture in the early stages of most multi-nation cricket tournaments, with India facing Pakistan on June 9.

While bilateral series between the two teams continue to be on deep freeze, India and Pakistan have faced each other a number of times in the last four years due to the relatively high frequency of multi-nation tournaments after the Covid-19 pandemic. India had won all World Cup games, T20 or ODI, that they had ever played against Pakistan until the latter ended the drought with a resounding 10-wicket win during the 2021 T20 World Cup. In turn, India secured a thrilling win against Pakistan at a packed Melbourne Cricket Ground in the 2022 T20 World Cup.

With the two teams' campaign set to get underway, former players have already started making predictions on who could come out on top this time. Former Pakistan wicketkeeper Kamran Akmal is no different and he reckons that India will come out on top this time around as well. "Definitely India!" said Akmal in reply to a fan, who had asked him for his prediction for the fixture, on Instagram.

‘Everybody knows the level of Pakistan cricket’

Akmal said that he concurs with former England Michael Vaughan's opinion that the defending T20 World Cup champions would have been better served if their players were allowed to compete in the latter stages of the IPL instead of being pulled out of the tournament to play a T20 series at home against Pakistan. Two out of the four matches in the series have been washed out while the games that could be played ended in a comfortable wins for England.

"Over the past few days, I have wondered why a former England captain is commenting and taking Pakistan cricket non-seriously. It has been a painful thought, but I think he was correct in his assessment," Akmal said on his YouTube channel.

"Everybody knows the level of Pakistan cricket. We are losing against smaller teams like Ireland and in that sense Vaughan said that it is not a tough series. So the fault is ours. Had it been any other team like New Zealand, South Africa and India then Vaughan would not have said it," he added. "We need to understand that in IPL, the best bowlers and batters are participating with crowds of 40 to 50,000. So it is tough cricket and quality cricket," he explained.

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