Former Indian spinner Harbhajan Singh on Monday stated that India will be under more pressure than Pakistan during their clash in the ICC Cricket World Cup on October 15 at Ahmedabad stadium.
The 42-year-old mentioned that playing on home soil will put more pressure on the hosts to defeat their arch-rivals.
"It will be a very high-pressure game. Pakistan will not be under as much pressure as India because India will be playing in India. So to handle and absorb that pressure and to win from there and bring a smile to everyone's faces will be a huge thing," Harbhajan said.
The right-arm off-break bowler emphasised the importance of the India-Pakistan encounter saying that there is nothing bigger than that. He also mentioned the 2011 Cricket World Cup semi-final between arch-rivals, which India won by 29 runs, saying that it felt like a final.
"There cannot be anything bigger than that - India vs Pakistan. I remember the game, if I talk about 2011, according to me that semi-final was a semi-final by name, it was the final game.
"The pressure of that match, the expectations in that game from your relatives to entire India and wherever Indians are sitting, you just have to do one thing for them, and that is to win the match," he concluded.
Here is Pakistan's schedule for the ICC World Cup 2023:
October 6 - vs Qualifier 1 in Hyderabad
October 12 - vs Qualifier 2 in Hyderabad
October 15 - vs India in Ahmedabad
October 20 - vs Australia in Bengaluru
October 23 - vs Afghanistan in Chennai
October 27 - vs South Africa in Chennai
October 31 - vs Bangladesh in Kolkata
November 4 - vs New Zealand Bengaluru (Day match)
November 12 - vs England in Kolkata
The day matches which will start at 10:00am Pakistan Standard Time (PST) while all other matches will be day-night fixtures starting at 01:30pm (PST).