The heat is on India against resurgent Pakistan

The safety net will not be in vogue again, the parachute will not be deployed anymore. The crushing defeat in Nagpur has ensured that, with the only lifeline available already used up, India's next fall will be a freefall with drastic consequences.
This is hardly the scenario India, or their teeming millions of fans, would have envisaged a few days back, at the start of their Super 10 campaign against New Zealand in the ICC World Twenty20. The general belief was that India would grab early momentum and hope to ride its wave at the iconic Eden Gardens, against best buddies and fiercest rivals Pakistan.

Instead, it's Pakistan who find themselves far better placed against a team they have failed to conquer across ten showdowns in the 50-over World Cup and the World T20 combined. Their late arrival in India stemming from concerns about security in Dharamsala - and the subsequent switch of this mega clash to the City of Joy - is no more than a distant memory now. Pakistan have embraced Kolkata as much as the Kolkatans have embraced them, and in some ways, given that they have been here for five days, it is almost as if it is Shahid Afridi's men that are the home team.

One of the disadvantages of playing at home in a tournament of this magnitude is that every centre worth its salt wants to host the Indian side. India are thus playing their four Super 10 games at four different venues. For all their familiarity with home conditions, they are second best to Pakistan here at Eden - the Pakistanis played a practice game against Sri Lanka and kicked off their Super 10 skirmishes with a commanding win over Bangladesh. A similar situation will greet them in Bangalore (Bangladesh would have played Australia before they take on India) and Mohali (Australia run into Pakistan before they meet India), which means the opponents will have better immediate knowledge of the venue than will the designated tournament host.

Never mind. India's immediate task is to extend their hegemony over Pakistan in World Cups if they are to keep themselves in the hunt for a last-four place. It isn't a task beyond them - the same team sent Pakistan tumbling to 83 all out in admittedly vastly differing conditions in Mirpur last month - but for that, they must excise the potentially debilitating psychological after-effects of the Nagpur drubbing inflicted by New Zealand spin. However incredible that might sound.

India pride themselves on their bouncebackability. Never will that trait be tested more seriously than on Saturday (March 19). Pakistan are dangerous front-runners who can get on a searing roll when they start a competition in sprightly fashion. They have begun this tournament as spectacularly as any other side with a commanding rout of Bangladesh, and like Waqar Younis pointed out, are approaching a World Cup game against India without pressure of any sort for perhaps the first time.