Asia Cup 2023: India's first match will be against their arch-rivals, Pakistan, and it is scheduled to take place in Kandy on Saturday.
After a successful tour in the West Indies and Ireland, except for the T20Is, Team India is now gearing up for their next challenge - the Asia Cup 2023. Their first match will be against their arch-rivals, Pakistan, and it is scheduled to take place in Kandy on Saturday.
India has selected a 17-member squad for this continental tournament, with experienced players Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli making their return to the team. Additionally, Shreyas Iyer will also be back after a long injury break. However, KL Rahul is still unfit and will not be available for the first two matches.
In terms of the bowling department, the team management is pleased with the progress of Jasprit Bumrah, who will lead the seam attack alongside Mohhamad Shami. Bumrah and Prasidh Krishna, who have both made successful comebacks from injuries, were outstanding during the Ireland tour and are also part of India's plans for the Asia Cup.
Despite having a strong and talented squad, former Pakistan opener Salman believes that Babar Azam and his team will have the upper hand in the highly anticipated clash in Kandy. He tries to justify his claim by comparing the strengths of both sides.
"If we look at India's fast bowling, fitness is a concern. Players have been unfit for a long time, we don't know if they are fragile, will they go full throttle. Apart from Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma, they have youngsters, who have played plenty of cricket but they don't have that much of experience.
“India have won matches only when Rohit Sharma has played well or Virat Kohli has done something spectacular. When the onus is on others they have mostly struggled.”
“Pakistan have Babar, Rizwan, Fakhar, Shadab, Shaheen, Haris Rauf. And in my opinion Pakistan have a much larger core group. India too have match-winners like Jadeja, Shami, Bumrah, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli. But their batting is brittle, if Pakistan pick the two big wickets then the others will have a lot to prove. They have not helped India win matches against Pakistan or in their own,” the ex-Pakistan cricketer said in a video shared on his YouTube channel.
Comparing the seam attacks, Butt also mentioned Pakistan have an “added advantage”.
“We have bowlers who can bowl at 90mph, only one or two can touch 90mph, others don't have that much pace. This is an added advantage. We have both type of spinners, fast bowling all-rounder, and he too touches 140kph,” he said.
Salman believes that the Indian team will face immense pressure due to the high expectations placed upon them.
“There are plenty of expectations from India, hence the pressure is more. And since India have not played against Pakistan for a long time for whatever reasons, their players no matter how much IPL they've played, they don't have the experience of playing in such high-voltage clash. Chahe subah, dopahar, sham IPL khel le (no matter how much you play in the IPL) it does not bring the same pressure, which is during India-Pakistan series,” he said.
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