India captain Rohit Sharma addressed media ahead of India vs Pakistan clash (AFP Image)
In buildup to the highly anticipated match between India vs Pakistan, skipper Rohit Sharma spoke to the media in a press conference for the India’s first match in the Asia Cup 2023.
In the buildup to the highly anticipated battle of India vs Pakistan, Rohit Sharma, captain of the Indian cricket team spoke to the media in a press conference. He was candid when asked about the preparation for Team India when going up against the likes of Pakistan’s star-studded pace attack of Shaheen Afridi, Naseem Shah and Haris Rauf.
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Rohit Sharma said, “We don’t have Shaheen, Naseem and Rauf in our nets. We practice with the bowlers we have. They are all quality bowlers. We just have to use our experience to play them tomorrow.”
The lethal pace trio have been the talk ever since India picked up the loss against Pakistan in the 2021 T20 World Cup held in the UAE.
Rohit Sharma will be particularly wary of the express pacer after dismissing him for a golden duck in 2021.
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The tournament will be a pre-cursor to the 2023 ICC ODI World Cup which is hosted in India. The Indian team will look to avenge their loss in the Asia Cup after picking up losses to both Pakistan and Sri Lanka in the previous edition of the tournament.
With the Asia Cup being a 50-over format, as opposed to the 20-over format in the previous edition, the Indian side will hope to use the time to try out various combinations since a few players are coming back from injury.
The likes of Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul, and Jasprit Bumrah are some of the key players who are returning to action. Bumrah had started off earlier in the T20 series against Ireland.
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Pakistan started off their Asia Cup campaign with a massive victory over Nepal by 238 runs. Skipper, Babar Azam was the standout player of the match scoring 151 runs off 131 deliveries.
Shadab Khan also used his quality spin-bowling to pick up 4 wickets in the game. He will also be crucial to Pakistan’s bowling attack in the event that the fast bowlers are not being given favourable conditions.
With KL Rahul set to be out for the first two games in the Asia Cup against Pakistan and Nepal. It will be interesting to see who the team deploys at the number 4 position. India has the option of using Shreyas Iyer, Tilak Varma, and Sanju Samson in the reserves for the spot.
The big match between India vs Pakistan will take place in the Pallekelle International Stadium, Kandy tomorrow at 3 PM (IST).
