“You guys create the hype from outside, inside we will focus our job and try to play good cricket.”
Rohit Sharma had a wry smile on his face – not unusually – while addressing questions – not unusually – about the nature of the beast that is the India-Pakistan rivalry in cricket.
Less than one year after they suffered a shocking 10-wicket defeat the last time the two sides locked horns in the T20 World Cup at the very venue in Dubai International Stadium, India will take on Pakistan at the Asia Cup 2022 on Sunday.
The stakes were higher and the aftermath more gruelling then but now, merely a couple of months before the T20 World Cup in Australia, India will be looking at this encounter as a primer to prevent a repeat of 2021, not just against Pakistan but the tournament overall.
“The mood is buzzing,” captain Rohit Sharma said on Saturday, answering one of the many versions of the question that addressed the defeat last year.
“This is a fresh tournament, a new start. We talk about starting fresh and not thinking of what happened in the past. That’s how teams move forward. We are no different. Of course, it will be challenging to play Pakistan, without a doubt. What is important is what we are thinking and what we want to achieve. We will focus on that rather than thinking about the opposition. We are here for a purpose, and we want to achieve something from this tournament. Everyone is excited to be here, they want to start the tournament on a high.”
Even though the early exit in the T20 World Cup last year was a catalyst in bringing about a string of changes for India (mostly philosophically, a little bit on the personnel front), vice-captain KL Rahul too hinted that they were not letting that defeat play on their mind too much.
“Obviously losing any game and in the World Cup hurts. It was the first game of the World Cup and we were all very excited,” the opening batter had said on Friday.
“Every big team enters the tournament wanting to win and unfortunately that did not happen for us. We were outplayed by a very strong Pakistan team. We get an opportunity to play against them again and it’s a contest we are looking forward to. The match starts from zero … There might be a history of how many times the teams played against each other and won but it does not matter as the game only starts from zero.”
Watch: Rohit Sharma press meet ahead of India-Pakistan at Asia Cup
What’s changed for India?
So, since then to now, what’s changed for both sides? India has the same feel and team composition this time around as well from a batting perspective but there’s been a change in the leadership and think-tank with Rohit Sharma taking over as the all-format captain and Rahul Dravid taking over as Head Coach. Even if most members from the team that was defeated by Pakistan last year remain the same, India have adopted or rather, are experimenting with a high-risk, attacking approach that is better suited for T20 cricket.
For far too long, India relied on a safer, anchor-the-innings-without-unnecessary-risk approach but since Dravid and Rohit’s reign began, the management and several players have admitted to wanting to stick with the high-risk-high-reward tact even if there are setbacks.
The good thing here is that India haven’t really faced as many losses with this approach, with clean sweeps against New Zealand, West Indies, Sri Lanka and Ireland, followed by a 2-1 series win against England, a 4-1 win against West Indies. The only real disappointment was a 2-2 tied series against South Africa.
Interestingly, India, so far have played around 31 matches in the last one year, winning 24 of them and losing six. Pakistan, on the other hand, have played merely 13 matches, winning 11 of them and losing two. They defeated Bangladesh 3-0, West Indies 3-0 but lost the solitary T20I against Australia 1-0. If both sides are indeed looking at Asia Cup as a means to better their practices and strategies ahead of the T20 World Cup, it is actually Pakistan that needs to get in as much as they can out of these matches.
Although defending champions India hold an advantage over Pakistan at the Asia Cup, there looms the uncertainty that comes with not facing their Pakistani counterparts so often and that can end up becoming a disadvantage in multi-team events like these.
Main men missing
However, both India and Pakistan are plagued with the disadvantage of going in to the Asia Cup without their main men – their superstar pacers that lead the attack.
While Pakistan are particularly disadvantaged because of the absence of Shaheen Shah Afridi, who is out with a knee injury, they will be hoping for one of their other bowlers to emulate the new ball spell that cleaned up India’s top-order in their last encounter, or at least threaten them the way another left-armer Mohammad Amir did back in the 2016 Asia Cup spell.
The absence of a left-armer in the Pakistan squad bodes well for India considering their poor record against them even though it takes away potential opportunities of getting used to his menacing spells before the World Cup.
Meanwhile, India are going in without Jasprit Bumrah who is ruled out with a back injury. So, who leads the pace attack in his absence? The most efficient candidate was Harshal Patel, the leading wicket-taker for India this year but he too, is out with a rib injury.
India are still stacked with experienced resources in the likes of a fresher looking Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Yuzvendra Chahal. It will also be particularly interesting to see what R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja’s role will be on the Dubai tracks and whether Avesh Khan and Arshdeep Singh can impress in what will be their first major event.
Pakistan’s bowling line-up is rather inexperienced but possesses the advantage of having the novelty factor in youngsters like Naseem Shah, Shahnawaz Dahani, Mohammad Hasnain who can gain a lot from the exposure the tournament has to offer. However, Haris Rauf and Shadab Khan must lead the proceedings and instil confidence in their otherwise young bowling attack.
Ahead of the encounter, Wasim Akram in a conversation with Star Sports also pointed out that Pakistan lack the experience in the middle order and thus, captain Babar Azam, Fakhar Zaman and Mohammad Rizwan must do the heavy-lifting in the UAE conditions they are very familiar with.
All eyes on Indian batting
Ultimately though, from an Indian perspective, all eyes will be on how the batting unit will a) approach setting targets, b) deal with setbacks and c) post above par totals. All three were problem areas in the World Cup last year.
“We do talk about our losses, that’s how we improve as a team,” Rohit said. “That loss did hurt us at that point, but I think it’s been a while since that game has been played. We learn from our mistakes. For now it’s a fresh start for us and obviously the team is coming out of playing a lot of T20 cricket. We will not think too much about what happened in October, that was a long time back.”
India can afford to have their batting line-up tested with several new match-winners emerging for them in the last one year. Rishabh Pant, Suryakumar Yadav, Deepak Hooda and Dinesh Karthik have all had moments to remember and so, the management would be hoping for them to shine even in this tournament.
However, one of the biggest possibilities to look forward to in this much-anticipated encounter is a comeback in what will be Virat Kohli’s 100th T20I appearance. It’s no surprise that he is India’s leading run-getter against Pakistan with 311 runs in seven matches. The closest to him is Rohit, with 70 runs in eight matches.
The match presents the opportunity for maybe some unheralded names to make themselves the heroes for their sides, but it also presents an opportunity for a rejuvenated Kohli to bring his old self back.
India’s squad for Asia Cup: Rohit Sharma (Captain), KL Rahul (vice-captain), Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Deepak Hooda, Rishabh Pant (wicket-keeper), Dinesh Karthik (wicket-keeper), Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, R. Ashwin, Yuzvendra Chahal, Ravi Bishnoi, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Arshdeep Singh, Avesh Khan
Match starts at 7.30 pm IST and will be live on the Star Sports network
With additional inputs by Vinayakk Mohanarangan