“It is going to be a challenging one so we have to be up for it,” Rohit Sharma on the opening game 
Ahead of the game, Indian stars such as Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul, Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant, and Hardik Pandya talked about the game against Pakistan and what can one expect.
Pakistan and India will play their group stage clash on August 28 in Dubai. The fans are eagerly waiting for the clash while all eyes will be on Babar Azam’s and Virat Kohli’s forms.
Ahead of the game, Indian stars such as Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul, Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant, and Hardik Pandya talked about the game against Pakistan and what can one expect.
“First game on 28th, we will try and be in present. Preparation-wise, we have not been short. We are not looking at the opposition at all, what we need to achieve as a group is more important than the opposition we play. It is going to be a challenging one so we have to be up for it,”
said Rohit in a video uploaded on the official website of BCCI.
Talking about the contest, Suryakumar Yadav said:
“Obviously, when I was growing up, there was a lot of talk around the India-Pakistan games and people say it is the greatest rivalry. But when we go out to the field, it is just another game. When you enter the field, all our preparation and routine we do reflects on the ground. I just try and stay in my zone when I enter the field.”
“It is a great opportunity for us to play 2-3 games, challenge ourselves. Pakistan has been a really good team over the past few years. They have played some excellent cricket, it is a high-pressure game and it will always be that,”
said India vice-captain KL Rahul.
Rishabh Pant and Hardik Pandya both said that the pressure is there around the game, but it is important to focus on the game rather than the “outside noise”.
“There is an interesting environment. The match is hyped up quite a bit. As a player, we try to give our 100 percent. Pressure is there in India-Pakistan game, expectations also rise,”
said Pant.
“Hype is there outside, a lot of people have emotions attached to the game and we all understand that. For us, we have to make sure that we keep the outside noise outside and we focus on things we need to,”
said Hardik.
India: Rohit Sharma (c), KL Rahul, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant, Deepak Hooda, Dinesh Karthik, Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, R Ashwin, Yuzvendra Chahal, Ravi Bishnoi, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Arshdeep Singh, Avesh Khan.
Standby: Shreyas Iyer, Axar Patel, Deepak Chahar.
Pakistan: Babar Azam (c), Shadab Khan, Asif Ali, Fakhar Zaman, Haider Ali, Haris Rauf, Iftikhar Ahmed, Khushdil Shah, Mohammad Nawaz, Mohammad Rizwan, Naseem Shah, Shahnawaz Dahani, Usman Qadir, Mohammad Hasnain, Hasan Ali.