India, Feb. 18 -- It's difficult to put a tournament in context when it was last played eight years ago. It's difficult to understand why the ICC put it off for this long. It's difficult to get excited about it. But to many in Pakistan, the memory of Mohammed Amir ripping through India's top order on a balmy English afternoon in the final at The Oval in 2017 remains a special one.

Babar Azam and Fakhar Zaman, who scored a match-winning hundred that day, are the only survivors from that winning Pakistani team who will feature in their tournament opener against New Zealand in Karachi on Wednesday.

The competition itself has undergone more name changes than the practice followed by some of the under-performing IPL franchises. The inaugural...