NoVirat,butIndia favourites vs Pak
ASIA CUP After loss in Champions Trophy final last year, India would be keen on revenge against Pak
ABUDHABI: Rival captains Sarfraz Ahmed and Rohit Sharma played down the hype surrounding the much-awaited IndiaPakistan clash in Dubai on Wednesday, insisting that the Asia Cup is much more than a contest between the arch-rivals.
But despite their claims, millions of fans across the border and elsewhere in the world will be watching the Group A clash, with a sold out 25,000-crowd expected at the Dubai Stadium.
The game is the first between the sub-continent rivals since Pakistan thumped India by 180 runs in the final of the Champions Trophy at The Oval in June last year.
The two teams are facing each other for the first time in the United Arab Emirates since 2006, the last of their regular matches which were also held in Sharjah between 1984-2000.
NO ADVANTAGE
Sarfraz, who led Pakistan in that memorable Champions Trophy triumph, denied that his team will have a psychological advantage.
“We will not keep that Champions Trophy win in our minds,” said Sarfraz on Monday, a day after his team thumped qualifiers Hong Kong in their first match of the tournament.
Rohit, leading India in place of the rested Virat Kholi, made it clear that the likes of Manish Pandey, Kedar Jadhav, Ambati Rayudu are fighting for the key middle-order slots.
“Lot of spots are up for grabs like Nos 3, 4 and 6. All these guys (Kedar, Manish, Rayudu) are eyeing those slots. We want to give chances to as many guys for this particular series. In this tournament, we need to seal the batting slot Nos 4 and 6,” Rohit said. Former India captain Sourav Ganguly predicted that the India-Pakistan match would be an even contest. “It will be a 50-50 contest,” Ganguly said in Kolkata.
Both India and Pakistan have won five matches each in the ODI duels at the Asia Cup. Additionally, India won the 2016 Asia Cup clash when the tournament was played in the T20 format.
KOHLI’S ABSENCE
Asked if Virat’s absence would be a factor, Ganguly said, “Virat Kohli’s absence won’t be a factor, they are a better side,” adding Pakistan too have improved on their performance.
Both India and Pakistan are more or less through to the round-robin Super Four stage now that Sri Lanka are out of the competition following their losses to Bangladesh and Afghanistan.
India and Pakistan will meet again in the last-four league stage and there remains a possibility of a third match between the two if the arch-rivals set up a mouth-watering final in Dubai on September 28.