How will Pakistan fare in WC 2019?

16 June may be around four weeks away, when the die-hard fans of cricket in both India and Pakistan will witness the most-awaited cricket match of the 12th World Cup in England.

India has a clean 6-0 record against its archrivals, who have never beaten us till the last edition of the 2015 World Cup, beginning from 1992.

Yet, given the ups and downs that our neighbouring country has faced in matters of cricket, it would be of interest to see how they fare when the global event takes off 11 days from now.

At the time of writing, a resurgent England has already won their 5-match ODI series, 3-0, the third one chasing a whopping 340 and bagging it with three wickets to spare.

This may of course, lend a new whiff of air to the theory that England may finally be the favourites to bag the Cup, despite coveting it for so long and being pipped always.

A look at how 2019 has panned out for Pakistan is revealing. The mercurial set of players which that country's cricket team comprises played three series – an away series against South Africa, a 'home series' against Australia in the Gulf and the ongoing England series in the home of cricket, where the Cup matches are also scheduled to take place.

While the Proteas handed them a 3-2 verdict, the Aussies went one step further and gave them a whitewash of 5-0.

This despite missing their top two players, Steve Smith and David Warner, who showed their hunger for runs in the recently concluded IPL 2019. Now at England, the home team is racing towards a clean sweep when the final match is played out today.

Asian teams have traditionally struggled to return to a semblance of normalcy after a series of crashing defeats which has often led to hostile post-mortems in the media and among the cricket lovers who have their own take on the predicament their teams face.

One has often seen how Pakistan has also not escaped intense scrutiny by its experts, of both the official and unofficial kind, specially when India plays against them.

Yet, the prediction about Pakistan's cricket team has often been about its unpredictability and their ability to surprise their opponents on a day when everything goes right for them.

From the sizzle effect point of view, one wishes the neighbour puts up a solid fight and makes the WC event as exciting as it can turn out, edition after edition.

There can be nothing more engrossing for a cricket lover in both the countries when each square off against the other in this World Cup, with India trying to maintain its supremacy and Pakistan trying to breach this one barrier which has eluded them for more than two decades.