Asia Cup 2022, India vs Pakistan: India’s old guard ready with new approach against ‘unfamiliar’ foes Pakistan | Cricket News

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.
But the lack of regular games mean that Indo-Pak rivalries are rather held between unfamiliar foes rather than familiar ones.
One can’t plan a lot against an opposition whom a team plays once or twice a year, while one has to expect the unexpected.
The last meeting India played Pakistan, they didn’t have any idea how much Shaheen Shah Afridi had improved. The result was a 10-wicket defeat.

Three seniors and a battle ahead
A lot was said after Afridi’s two-over opening spell send jitters in the Indian camp during the last T20 World Cup opener and India’s erstwhile team management did cop a lot of flak for their archaic batting approach in shortest format of the game.
Questions were raised whether the sameness in the top-order with three right-handers make it easy for a good left-arm paceman to set the alarm bells ringing.
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 their gung-ho approach and Suryakumar Yadav at the top looked menacing with his all-round strokes.
Deepak Hooda, although against Ireland, was audacious as an opener but with Kohli and KL Rahul available, it will be experience that will get first preference going into a high-profile game.
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.
In case of Kohli, the number stands at four with a half-century against a sub-par West Indies attack.
Rohit, in the interim, has played some attractive little knocks but more importantly has tweaked his batting philosophy as per the needs of the team.

Will Kohli and Rahul be able to do the same? That remains a big question moving forward.
“It’s great to see the new approach of Indian team, started after the last World Cup, following the words of captain by everyone, we are hoping to continue this,” vice-captain Rahul said on Friday during a media interaction.
A lot, however, will depend on how the trio of Suryakumar, Pant and Hardik Pandya perform between overs 10 and 20. The trio with their explosive strength can perhaps take the Afridi-less Pakistan attack to cleaners with designated finisher Dinesh Karthik likely to sit out.

India’s history at Asia Cup