IND vs PAK: The much-awaited tournament, the Asia Cup has already begun and was witness to the kind of carnage Afghanistan had on Sri Lanka in the first match of Group B. But as of now, all the eyeballs are set on India and Pakistan, the marquee clash that will be played in the Dubai International Stadium. The ongoing Asia Cup is a dress rehearsal for the upcoming T20I World Cup that will be played in Australia later this year.
Rahul Dravid in converstaion with Raishabh Pant
The last time when both these teams clashed, the scenarios were different and so were the people who were in charge and were in power. Virat Kohli was the skipper of the side and cricketer turned broadcaster Ravi Shastri was the head coach of the team. Babar Azam-led Pakistan team inflicted a loss of 10 wickets upon team India which derailed their campaign and dampened their spirits. This loss was the cause of major shift changes in Indian cricket. After the tournament ended, Rohit Sharma was entrusted with the captaincy duties and Rahul Dravid was made the head coach.
With scars of the T20I World Cup still fresh in mind, team India will now want to return the favor to their arch-rivals Pakistan. The Indian contingency faced a major setback when they lost Jasprit Bumrah to a back injury. Before the team could fly out to the United Arab Emirates (UAE), coach Rahul Dravid was down and out with COVID and could not join the team. VVS Laxman was named the interim head coach.
Rahul Dravid has recovered from COVID and is all set to join team India
As of now, reports have surfaced that head coach Dravid has recovered and has reached UAE to be with team India ahead of this marquee clash.
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
Pakistan squad for Asia Cup: Babar Azam (c), Shadab Khan, Asif Ali, Fakhar Zaman, Haider Ali, Haris Rauf, Iftikhar Ahmed, Khushdil Shah, Mohammad Nawaz, Mohammad Rizwan, Naseem Shah, Shahnawaz Dahani, Usman Qadir, Mohammad Hasnain, Hasan Ali
