India vs Pakistan, Cricket World Cup 2019: Virat Kohli urges teammates not be distracted by emotion of the match

The fixture is one of sport's most intense rivalries

Virat Kohli has urged India not to be distracted by the scale of the occasion in their eagerly-anticipated World Cup match against Pakistan.

Pakistan’s rivalry with India is one of the sport’s most intense with matches often played in the shadow of diplomatic rows.

The Indian cricket team had been urged to boycott Sunday’s match at Old Trafford after a Pakistan-based militant group claimed responsibility for a suicide attack in India-administered Kashmir in February that killed 46 paramilitary police officers.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) was prepared to stand by any government decisoin and called on the International Cricket Committee (ICC) to “sever ties with countries from which terrorism emanates”, while India cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar said losing points to Pakistan would be painful but added he would support whatever the BCCI decided to do.

Thankfully talk of a boycott has disappeared and the game will go ahead, weather permitting.

India vs Pakistan, a fixture that does not happen outside of international tournaments, will draw a television audience of hundres of millions and around 800,000 people applied for tickets for the 26,000 capacity match.

India won the two matches they played in the 2018 Asia Cup, but Pakistan may feel they have an advantage over Kohli’s side after they beat them in the final of the 2017 Champions Trophy in England. The emphatic 180-run win saw the Pakistan players return to a formal ceremony arranged for them by the Prime Minister, while in India fans across the country were filmed breaking televisions and setting fire to posters of their cricketing heroes, there were even arrests made in Kashmir where supporters were celebrating Pakistan’s victory.

This is a cricket match like no other and one Kohli knows he has to win. The India captain has repeatedly played down the pressure he feels to deliver in this fixture and on the eve of the match he has once again urged his teammates to control their emotions in one of sport’s hottest cauldrons.

“The fans' point of view is very different. They should enjoy the atmosphere,” he said. “They should enjoy the occasion the way they want to and the way it's been enjoyed for years, but the players obviously have to maintain the mindset we have for years approaching any kind of game, whether it's India-Pakistan, India-Australia, India-England or South Africa, whoever it is.

Virat Kohli has urged his side not to get distracted (Action Images via Reuters)

“Our mindset remains the same, just to go out there and be professional about our cricket and execute what we're expected to execute because for us this is a responsibility and people expect us to play a certain way, and that's our focus.”

India could lose this match and go on to win the World Cup and still be met with a mixed reception when they return home such is the magnitude of the occasion, but Kohli refused to suggest it should viewed differently from any other fixture in their tournament.

“We understand that any game that you play for your country can be emotional, adrenaline filled, so no one game is more important or more special for us than the other.

"As cricketers who have been selected to play for their country, our responsibility is to treat every game equally because you have to be committed to play for your country every game that you play regardless of the opposition.

“For us, nothing in the changing room is different. Nothing changes in our mindset. We are a top side in the world because of the cricket that we played, and we always need to remember that, and our focus is absolutely that.”

Pakistan coach Mickey Arthur took a slightly different approach to the frame of mind he wants his players to be in. “It doesn't get more exciting,” he said.

“I'm telling our players in the dressing room, you could be a hero tomorrow. Your careers are going to be defined by a moment in the game. You do something incredible tomorrow, you'll be remembered forever.

“Our kind of mantra is how do you want to be remembered? We've got 15 incredible cricketers in that dressing room, and we keep stressing to them, how do you want to be remembered? You're the class of 2019. What are they going to say about you in history? And tomorrow presents an unbelievable opportunity for these guys to really make a mark.”