A different gravy of intrigue on the menu for India-v-Pakistan

The Overview

A week out from their much-billed clash at the MCG, the players and staff of India and Pakistan briefly bumped into each other during a small overlap between their respective warm-up games. The setting was idyllic: A pleasant spring evening in Brisbane, the sun just beginning to slip behind the high-rises of the Woolloongabba vicinity, the floodlights radiant, the Gabba almost empty. Perfect for coffee and conversation.

And there was enough to discuss: family, food and the rain forecast for starters. Their tours had already packed more than 10,000 kilometers of travel, several heavyweight timezone adjustments, some double net sessions, a series of marketing pushes and also some games on top of it all. As the meet-cute lingered, a broadcast producer and a social media manager got wind of this impromptu rendezvous and had cameras turn in their direction. Nothing with these teams is done quietly away from mass scrutiny any more. And India and Pakistan hadn't even gotten to Melbourne yet.

The cosmopolitan capital of Victoria is where these sides have been asked to face each other next by ICC's fixture computer, the fifth time in eight T20 World Cups they've been drawn together in the same first-round group. The importance of the game for the financial and emotional stakeholders has already been overstated. Lest it is forgotten, it has proved to be even more crucial for the two teams themselves. While it may seem facile to pinpoint one result over a five-match group stage as being the spanner in the works, it turns out that defeat in this fixture has eventually proved terminal for the team's progression in three of the four T20 World Cups so far.