Fierce rivals India, Pakistan clash in a blockbuster Asia Cup match

DUBAI: A captain with a new batting philosophy and a master batter standing at the crossroads, trying to reinvent himself, will aim to create a new narrative when India gets ready to settle scores with Pakistan in the marquee Asia Cup match here on Sunday.

Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli have been the two pillars of India’s whiteball team for the past decade but having received a rude jolt at this very venue 10 months ago during the T20 World Cup, the duo exactly know where it stands and what it needs to do to turn the tables.

There would be a bigger picture also and that is to set the core combination for the T20 World Cup in Australia in order by the end of this tournament.

With no bilateral contests between the cross-border neighbours for 10 years now and nothing on the anvil in near future, the geo-political tension does always make for a heady build-up.

The last time India played Pakistan, it didn’t have any idea how much Shaheen Shah Afridi had improved. The result was a 10-wicket defeat.

However, on Sunday, there will be no Afridi

(due to knee injury) to bend it back into the top three India right-handers but the fact remains that despite all the experimentations done by coach Rahul Dravid, the top-order remains exactly the same after that debacle in Dubai.

Rishabh Pant-Rohit pair showed a lot of promise with its gung-ho approach and Suryakumar Yadav at the top looked menacing with his all-round strokes.

In the new set-up, KL Rahul is coming back up after a surgery and COVD-19 related lay-off. He hasn’t played a single international T20 game in 2022.

A lot, however, will depend on how the trio of Suryakumar, Pant and Hardik Pandya perform between overs 10 and 20. The trio with its explosive strength can perhaps take the Afridi-less Pakistan attack to cleaners with designated finisher Dinesh Karthik likely to sit out.

Babar Azam is very different from some of the Pakistani greats who have led the national team over the years.

A player, who is as much about method as he is about talent, Babar has brought a calmness that has worked more often than not in the past couple of years since he took charge.

Along with Mohammed Rizwan, he forms a formidable combination at the top.