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In sports like soccer and basketball club format has been in for a long time. Team mates in the English Premier League sides or NBA squads are pitted against each other when playing for their countries but it’s a first timer for cricket.  

Some players playing on opposite sides will know each others’ weaknesses and strengths. Whether this will have as huge an impact as has been speculated remains to be seen. These are all world class performers and such things can only raise the level of the game.

Let’s look at some of such interesting combinations in the second one day international of the tri nation’s series in Bangladesh between India and Pakistan.

Virender Sehwag v Shoaib Malik

Interestingly both of them are right handed batters and right arm off break bowlers. While Sehwag is a more attacking batsman, Shoaib is a more secure and compact type of batsman and a more regular bowler. He started his career as more of a bowling all rounder but has developed into a batting all rounder. Even after knowing everything about Sehwag there is not much that oppositions can plan because on his day he would thrash the best of bowlers and go down to some sheepishly tame dismissals on others.

Sehwag is likely to open the batting and having seen him all this while he has only a chance of one in ten of being still on crease when Malik comes to roll his arm over. We may still get to see some action between the two if Sehwag bowls to Malik or if this that one of the ten days for Sehwag.