The Asia Cup will begin on August 27 while the opening game of the tournament will be played between Afghanistan and Sri Lanka. But the fans are eagerly waiting for the group stage high clash between India and Pakistan on August 28 in Dubai.
The Asia Cup will begin on August 27 while the opening game of the tournament will be played between Afghanistan and Sri Lanka. But the fans are eagerly waiting for the group stage high clash between India and Pakistan on August 28 in Dubai.
It would be interesting to see how both sides perform and the last time, both teams met on T20 World Cup in 2021 where Pakistan badly defeated India by 10 wickets.
Ahead of the tournament, Pakistan star pacer Shaheen Afridi was ruled out of the mega event due to a knee injury and Mohammad Hasnain will replace him. India also would be without the services of Jasprit Bumrah and Harshal Patel but the regular stars such as Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant, and Hardik Pandya will all be back.
Former India skipper Virat Kohli was struggling with a bat for a long time ago and now all eyes would be on how Virat performs after being rested for the series against West Indies and Zimbabwe.
With India and Pakistan squaring off, eyes would be on both Virat Kohli and Pakistan’s in-form captain Babar Azam. Former cricketers Wasim Akram and Ravi Shastri tended to a virtual collaboration where they talked about the upcoming Asia Cup and what to expect.
“It (comparisons) is natural. When we played, I remember people used to compare Inzamam-ul-Haq with Rahul Dravid, and Sachin Tendulkar, before that it was Javed Miandad-Sunil Gavaskar, Gundappa Viswanath-Zaheer Abbas. It is only natural, like you said Babar has been very consistent in all three formats because he has got the right technique that is why he has been so consistent. He enjoys his batting; he gets runs and is still pretty hungry. He is physically fit, he is still young and of course, he is the captain for all three formats,”
said Akram while replying to an NDTV question during a virtual interaction organized by Star Sports Network.
“He is a young captain; he is still learning. As far as comparisons are concerned, I think it is a bit too early for me, Babar is on the right track to be where Virat is but comparing him to Virat at this stage is a bit too early. But as I said he is on the completely right track to be one of the modern-day great,”
he added.
While replying to another NDTV question on how important Asia Cup would be for Virat who has not scored a century for more than 1000 days, Akram said:
“Not just Virat, but for every player from every team. This tournament is very important for all teams from Asia. It is practice before the World Cup, and if you win, it would be icing on the cake, you’ll get the confidence if you get runs or wickets against top sides.”
However, Ravi Shastri said that playing so many games leading into the World Cup can cause injuries and this is why every side needs to have a bigger pool heading into the World Cup.
“Once the squads are announced for the World Cup, I think the cut-off period is one month. So, once you play these bilaterals, ensure you have a bigger squad. Add another 5-6 players who you can put into the mix to give the main players a break who will be playing the World Cup,”
said Shastri.