NEWS
Follow UsIndia will kick-off their Asia Cup campaign against Pakistan, and there is perhaps no contest bigger, better and grander than this. Both teams will know about a few billion people will have their eyes hooked to their television sets. Sure, this is no ODI World Cup, but given the context of this tournament, this isn’t any short of a high-octane clash.
While Pakistan bank on their Jazba and Junoon, Rohit Sharma’s India are more than happy to leave ‘experience’ to do its thing. Against a high-quality bowling unit, the Indian skipper insisted on using his ‘wealth of experience’ at the highest level to counter one of, if not the best, bowling attacks in world cricket.
"I've been playing for a while now, so it's about me using the experience for the team's good. That's what I prefer. In the last two years, I've played a different style of cricket, I've taken a lot more risks and I need to balance risk with the output,” said Rohit ahead of the high-octane fixture in Pallekele.
“As a top-order batter, my role is important and it's crucial for me to lay down a platform. I'll try to use my experience to good effect. Will try to ensure that I capitalize on my starts or whenever I get into good rhythm. Important for me to strike that balance,” he added.
The stern test for Rohit and the entire batting unit will be the pace trio - Shaheen Shah Afridi, Haris Rauf and Naseem Shah. For years now, bowling has been Pakistan’s heartbeat, and it hasn’t changed much. Rohit revealed that the Men in Blue have prepared to the best of their abilities to counter Pakistan’s bowling unit.
"See, we don't have a Shaheen, Rauf or Naseem to practice against in our net sessions," said Rohit in jest. "But we are preparing to the best of our abilities with the resources we have. All three are quality bowlers, have been for some time now and have been doing well as a unit. Pakistan have always had quality bowlers, what their strengths are, we know that and we have experienced players, so it's about using the experience to deal with the challenge."
"We have prepared well for this game. We had some time leading up to this tournament and used it to prepare ourselves. Now we have one day today left to prepare for tomorrow's game. Hopefully, all the prep and issues that we addressed come out well."
From lack of options to plenty of options
Whilst earlier, the headache surrounded the lack of options for India, it has now transformed into India having more options than they need in the ODI setup. It is a good headache indeed, and Rohit only hoped for this group of players to be injury-free for the next three months as India aims to win the ODI World Cup at home.
"I'd rather have this kind of a headache than no headache (at all). It's always nice within the team environment to have this kind of competition and so many players being available. I know for a fact that when all these players are fit and available and at their best, it will be a challenging task for us to make a playing XI,” Rohit said.
“I will hope that all these players stay fresh and stay fit for the next two months. Speaking of just the Asia Cup, I hope that we have no injury concerns and that should be a good sign moving forward."
India's squad for the 2023 Asia Cup
You’d want Rohit to reveal the playing XI, don’t you? But the Indian skipper remained mum about India’s XI for the clash, adding that ‘all sorts of combinations’ are possible. Whether India will play four pacers, or three spinners or extend their batting unit with Shardul Thakur at No.8 remains to be seen.
"All sorts of combinations are possible. We saw the game yesterday. There was a bit of swing, bit of spin, bit of everything. That is always going to challenge the batters. Luckily we have got experience in our batting line-up and I will let their experience come in play, and play accordingly,” Rohit added.
“Yes, I did talk about taking the game on but it's also important to read conditions. It's not T20 format, it's 50-over format where you need to apply a but more than T20 cricket and for a bit longer. The whole idea of being aggressive and allowing an individual to play their game is very much there. But we let the individuals to take the decisions when they're in the middle because a few of them, all of them actually have experience of playing under these conditions."
