Highlights
- India will play against Pakistan on August 28, 2022 at the Dubai International Stadium
- Pakistan haven't announced Afridi's replacement yet
- Team India too is plagued with injuries and the management had to leave Bumrah and Harshal out
IND vs PAK | The Asia Cup is all set to commence on August 27, 2022. Sri Lanka will lock horns with Afghanistan in the opening game of this multi-nation cricketing event. But as of now, all the buzz and hype has been built around the clash that we don't get to see very often. The clash between team India and team Pakistan. Both these teams will have a go at each other on August 28, 2022, and will be played in the Dubai International Stadium. Needless to say that both these teams enjoy immense fan followings and whenever they clash, there is an air of excitement on various social media platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.
Both these teams who are playing separate bilateral series in different parts of the globe have been plagued by injury issues and have faced major setbacks, especially in their fast bowling department. Jasprit Bumrah who sustained a back injury on the English tour has been ruled out of Asia Cup. On the other hand, Pakistan has recently been rattled by Shaheen Afridi's knee injury which has forced them to leave the left-armed seamer out.
Shaheen Afridi had a huge impact on the contest when India and Pakistan clashed in the ICC T20I World Cup last year at the same Venue. The Indian top order was rattled by the express pacer and as a result, they could not put up a decent total and Pakistan won the match by 10 wickets. Using the same instance to his advantage, former Pakistan pacer Waqar Younis has taken a dig at Team India and has stated that it might have given the Indian top order a sigh of relief.
Younis's comments certainly did not go down well with former Indian pacer Irfan Pathan and he was quick to react. Cricketer turned broadcaster Pathan stated how it was a sigh of relief for all the teams to know that Bumrah and Harshal aren't a part of the tournament either.
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The war of words did not stop just there. Former India batsman and ex-Mumbai Ranji team player Wasim Jaffer too weighed in and shared a meme supporting Pathan's opinion. Mumbai-based Wasim Jaffer is quite active on the microblogging site Twitter and is quite famous for how he uses memes to troll the opposition.
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's 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, Mohammad Wasim Jnr, Naseem Shah, Shahnawaz Dahani, Usman Qadir.
