Rohit advises caution against Pak bowlers

PALLEKELE: India skipper Rohit Sharma on Friday said his batters will have to rely on its rich experience to counter Pakistan’s potent pace trio in the much awaited Asia Cup clash here on Saturday.

A mouth-watering contest awaits when the likes of Rohit and Virat Kohli face the highly skilled Shaheen Afridi, Naseem Shah and Haris Rauf at the Pallekele International Cricket Stadium.

“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 (Saturday),” Rohit said on the eve of the game when asked about his team’s plans against the highly skilled pace attack.

With a few key players entering the Asia Cup after their recent recovery from injuries, Rohit asserted that the tournament is not a fitness test and the team will have to put its game face on.

India’s Group A match against Pakistan will see pacers Jasprit Bumrah, Prasidh Krishna and middle-order batsman Shreyas Iyer returning to the ODI set-up after a considerable time.

“By no means this (Asia Cup 2023) is a fitness test. This tournament is played between the top six Asian teams. So, it’s a very big tournament.

“The fitness test, fitness camp…. all that was done in Bangalore. Now, we have to go ahead and get our game face on and see what we can achieve in this (tournament),” said Rohit.

After a considerable time, India will enter a tournament with a near-full squad, barring injured KL Rahul and Rishabh Pant.

Rohit said it’s good to have several players to choose from for an important tournament.

“I would probably have this kind of headache, rather than having no headache. It’s always nice to have a good pool of players to choose from, and to have such kind of competition as well.

“It’s going to be quite a challenging task for us to make the playing 11. But I want to make sure that we have no injury concerns and that will be a good sign for us to move forward,” said Rohit.

Pakistan captain Babar Azam played down the talks of pressure on his side and said it was banking on its experience in Sri Lankan conditions to do well against India.

Pakistan had played a two-match Test series in Sri Lanka in July and then several players, including Babar, stayed back for the Lanka Premier League (LPL).

After the LPL, Pakistan took on Afghanistan in a three-match ODI series, which it won 3-0. Babar said the whole trip would stand the side in good stead.

“We have been here since July. We have played Test matches, some league (LPL) matches and then the ODIs (against Afghanistan). We are hoping that this will help us to do well against India,” said Babar.