India and Pakistan, the two biggest cricket rivals, are set to face off against each other in Asia Cup on August 28 in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

The India-Pakistan match is one of the most awaited encounters in the field of cricket as the fans rarely witness this rivalry on the field because the two teams haven’t played any bilateral series since January 2013.

In such a case, the two arch-rivals only met with each other in ICC events like Asia Cup and T20 World Cup which give the fans a chance to cheer for their respective teams in the high-value match.

Ahead of the upcoming India-Pakistan match in Asia Cup 2022, Pakistan skipper Babar Azam is not shy in admitting that the India-Pakistan game has always been a pressure game. The pressure is always there, he admitted it during an interaction with journalists.

Responding to the question that Pakistani players are under huge pressure ahead of much awaited India Pakistan encounter in the upcoming Asia Cup, Babar said yes, obviously the pressure is different in the high voltage encounter.

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Pakistan will try to play it like a normal match only as the team did in T20 World Cup 2021 which is to focus on the game and believe in the team. This time too the Pakistan players are going to give their best. The effort is in the player’s hands but the result is not, he said.

The limited number of head-to-head matches in the last decade has further increased the importance of the face-off between the two sides.

Squads For Asia Cup 2022

India

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

Babar Azam (captain), Shadab Khan (vice-captain), Asif Ali, Fakhar Zaman, Haider Ali, Haris Rauf, Iftikhar Ahmed, Khushdil Shah, Mohammad Nawaz, Mohammad Rizwan, Mohammad Wasim Jnr, Naseem Shah, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Shahnawaz Dahani, and Usman Qadir.

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Indian skipper Rohit Sharma is having a tough time with injuries. In the third T20 match against West Indies, Indian skipper walked back to pavilion after he was declared retire hurt.

Winning the toss, India invited West Indies to bat first and host put up a total of 164 on the loss of 5 wickets for India to chase. West Indies opener Kyle Mayers became the top-scored with 73 off 50 balls while Rovman Powell contributed with 23 runs.

Later Indian skipper Rohit Sharma came out with Suryakumar Yadav to open the India Innings. But after playing five balls, the skipper walked back to the pavilion. He was later declared retired hurt and the score board showed India down by one wicket and Shreyas Iyer came on crease to make partnership with Suryakumar Yadav.

BCCI took to their official Twitter handle and informed that Rohit Sharma has a back spasm and has been advised to rest.

The third number batsman played well until, Hardik Pandya walked in after Shreyas Iyer got out. But was Suryakumar Yadav, who stepped up, took the plunge and scored 76 off 44 balls. Wicket keeper Rishabh Pant remained not out with 33 off 26 balls.

India may have won the match with ease and took a lead of 2-1 in the five match series against West Indies, but Rohit Sharma’s regular fitness issues are now annoying the Indian audience. This is not for the first time that Rohit Sharma has walked back and declared retire hurt.

Rohit Sharma is the only Indian who has been declared retire hurt more than once in the shortest format. Moreover, the regular captain was rested for the ODI series against West Indies and erlier during the IND vs ENG decider Test match, Rohit was Covid positive.

Before that also Rohit was rested due to fitness issues and he had also spend time in NCA camp to regain his fitness. But still such complaints keep arising and with T20 World Cup coming in three months India cannot afford regular captain to have fitness issues every week.

Team India’s current opening batsman in the IND VS WI T20 series, has made the nation proud yet again. Skipper Rohit Sharma and Head coach Rahul Dravid took risk in the ongoing T20 series against West Indies and brought Suryakumar Yadav.

While several cricket critics doubted this decision, Suryakumar Yadav played such match winning innings in all these three matches that people are now calling him at the rightful opener of Indian cricket team.

SKY played a spectacular innings of 76 runs and has helped team India clinch the third T20 game from the hosts. Not just that, this innings has also helped him rise three places on the ICC T20I ranking.

The latest ICC Men’s T20 batter’s rankings shows Suryakumar Yadav at the second position after Pakistan skipper Babar Azam topping the list. With 816 ratings, Yadav is just two points away from Babar.

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Last night Suryakumar played a very valuable innings by making apt use of entire ground, and since then, tweeple are calling him the new Mr. 360. For those who don’t know Mr. 360 tag was given to former South African batsman AB De Villiers. AB used to play various shots in each side of the ground giving tough time to the ballers. He even invented the shot ‘reverse sweep’.

And last night, the cricket lovers got to witness the same, when Suryakumar Yadav played different and difficult shots with ease by making full use of the cricket ground.

Coming to bat first West Indies gave a total of 164 runs for India to chase. And after losing the second match the Indian cricket team was looking to redeem themselves but soon after Rohit Sharma was declared retired hurt after playing six balls, Indian fans were in a fix, but then Yadav took the load and played a valuable innings.

The other side of the batsmen kept building short partnerships with him and throwing away their wickets but Suryakumar stayed and made sure India takes a lead of 2-1 in the five match T20 series against West Indies.

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