Asia Cup 2022 - Match 2 on 28/08/2022 in Dubai
Group A: India vs Pakistan
India tactically more switched on, while Pakistan look too anchor-heavy.
The infrequency of India-Pakistan games, however, makes it a fascinating contest
Every time there is an Asia Cup around, its relevance is brought into question. Is it not enough that it brings together India and Pakistan for an actual game of cricket outside the World Cup and Champions Trophy? This edition has the potential of as many as three matches between them. It is not the case but even if the rest of the tournament is a facade to just find a way to have these teams play, it is worth it.
Indian batting's renaissance has arrived at a moment of reckoning. Time and effort have been meticulously spent in achieving a do-over since suffering a passive World Cup campaign - incidentally in UAE - last October. Starting Sunday, there's a chance of trialing it in a multi-team event for the first time. An opposition that calls UAE home, and barely loses there, should serve as a good starting point for India to gauge if this 180 degree batting transformation is likely to end their 15-year-long T20 World Cup trophy drought later this year.
In the last 10 months, India have improved their batting returns in each phase of the T20 innings, embracing the risks that come with the rewards of not playing conservatively, and now have the chance of committing to this chaos approach with a full-strength top-order. KL Rahul and Virat Kohli return from their respective breaks, giving VVS Laxman-Rohit Sharma duo a big call to make at the first step of this campaign. India have a 5-6-7 finishing axis of Hardik Pandya, Dinesh Karthik and Ravindra Jadeja while Suryakumar Yadav and Rishabh Pant have served as potent floaters, but this plan could undergo a tweak with their return to full-strength and an indicator of what the batting pecking order looks like.
For Pakistan, all concerns of rhythm and dilemma of selections are vis-a-vis their bowling. Shaheen Afridi's ouster from the tournament due to injury has already hamstrung Pakistan against an opposition that struggled to cope with the left-hander in past encounters. Now they're without Mohammad Wasim Jr. due to a training session injury.
Hasan Ali is back in the squad, but wasn't originally picked following an underwhelming year with the ball, and in Shahnawaz Dahani and Naseem Shah, Pakistan have two quicks with a combined experience of 2 T20Is. Babar Azam needs to be accurate with his left-armer-less bowling combinations, while leggie Shadab Khan too needs to hit the ground running in what will be his first T20I appearance since December 2021.
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