The Super 8 round of the T20 World Cup is set to commence today and the former Indian cricketers have predicted their semifinalists of the mega event. India is a common name among all of them but do they consider Pakistan as strong contenders? Let's see:

The Super 8 round of the T20 World Cup is set to get underway today with the match between New Zealand and Pakistan in Colombo. England and Sri Lanka are the other two teams in their group, while India, South Africa, Zimbabwe, and the West Indies have been grouped together in the other Super 8 Group. Meanwhile, former Indian cricketers who have turned experts have predicted their semifinalists of the T20 World Cup.

Cheteshwar Pujara, Mohammad Kaif, Varun Aaron, Sanjay Bangar and Saba Karim were among the former cricketers to predict while Yuzvendra Chahal has also turned an expert despite not retiring yet from international cricket. Interestingly, apart from Varun, all others have backed India and South Africa to qualify for the semifinals from Group 1,

However, Aaron is backing the West Indies to trump South Africa for the second spot from this group. He is also one of the only two experts to predict that Pakistan will make it to the knockouts from the other group

India vs Pakistan in semifinal again?

Well, this is what Varun Aaron and Sanjay Bangar are predicting as they are backing Salman Ali Agha and his men to come good in the Super 8 round and rightly so. Pakistan are playing all their matches in this round at the R Premadasa Stadium in Colombo where the pitches are slow and low. They have superb spinners, with Usman Tariq being tough to handle for teams so far. If Pakistan perform to their potential, they can be the serious semifinal contenders.

Surprisingly, not many experts have backed Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe, who joined hands to knock Australia out of the group stage. Only Pujara and Bangar feel that Sri Lanka would make it to the semis while no one has predicted Zimbabwe to make it to the final four. Sikandar Raza and his men will have another point to prove now as they were the unbeaten team in their group.

Here are their predictions:

Yuzvendra Chahal - India, South Africa, England, New Zealand

Cheteshwar Pujara - India, South Africa, Sri Lanka, New Zealand

Mohammad Kaif - India, South Africa, England, New Zealand

Varun Aaron - India, West Indies, England, Pakistan

Sanjay Bangar - India, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Pakistan

Saba Karim - India, South Africa, England, Sri Lanka