“It’s better to have a happy headache than no headache at all,” said Rohit, somewhat cryptically, with a sardonic smile. All signs are that the opening combination of Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill will remain in harness, with Virat Kohli coming in at No. 3, followed by Shreyas Iyer. The one gap, left by KL Rahul, who misses at least the first two matches and is yet to join the team, is at No. 5. Ishan Kishan is the favourite to take that spot, leaving Hardik Pandya at No. 6. What this means is that there will likely be no room for Suryakumar Yadav, whom the team were keen to somehow fit in, in his role as a finisher. In the bowling department, things are a bit simpler, with the three quicks and Ravindra Jadeja taking their places, with Kuldeep Yadav or Axar Patel taking the final spot.
Rohit’s ‘headache’ may be easily dealt with, but the small matter of negating the efficacy of Pakistan’s quick bowlers — Shaheen Shah Afridi, Naseem Shah and Haris Rauf — will take some doing. All three operate over 140km and Afridi has the knack of picking up a wicket in his first over.
This makes Rohit both vulnerable and the lynchpin of beating this Pakistan team. To that end, Rohit acknowledged that he might have to take stock of his approach.
“In the recent past I have been looking to take on the game, to be extra aggressive,” explained Rohit. “What I need to do is find a balance and, as a top-order batsman, play the role the team needs of me, which is to bat long and make big scores.”
Throughout his press conference, Rohit stressed on the need for India’s batsmen to “call on their experience and use that to assess the situation and play accordingly.” In that light, if not Rohit, then India need Kohli to go big, allowing the others to bat around one long innings.
The pitch being used for the game is a fresh one, but is expected to play similarly to the Bangladesh-Sri Lanka match. There was swing early on, good carry, a touch of seam movement and later on the spinners were able to extract turn.
What this does is bring every kind of bowler into the game, leaving batsmen with plenty to think about. All-out attack is unlikely to pay dividends, making shot selection all the more vital. Both Rohit and Kohli are old hands at this, exaggerating their importance in this game.
The statistically minded will point to the fact that India have beaten Pakistan in their last three 50-over encounters, but this should be taken with a pinch of salt as two of those matches came at the Asia Cup as far back as 2018 and in the World Cup in 2019. It’s been 50 months since the two teams have met in ODIs.
The wait has been extended and is unique to this contest, with teams playing to packed schedules in recent years. That only serves to heighten the anticipation and ramp up the hype outside of the team bubble. The stars are aligning for what should be a cracker of the game and all that is needed is for the rain to stay away.
Expensive Tickets
As the nation was celebrating its win over Bangladesh in the first match of the Sri Lanka leg of the Asia Cup, petrol prices went up by 13 Sri Lankan rupees (SLR). But, that’s not all that’s undergone a hike. Tickets for the Asia Cup officially hosted by the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) and conducted by Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC), are so expensive that the locals have all but been priced out of their party. This could well result in history being created: an India-Pakistan white-ball match that is not played before a full house.
The famous grass banks on either side of the Pallekele International Cricket Stadium that gives the ground a touch of Centurion in South Africa, usually host people at only SLR 250. Those tickets, which do not even entitle you to a seat, were priced at SLR 10,000 for the big clash. Good sense prevailed after a poor turnout in the first match and this was revised to SLR 1500. But, the better seats, in the grandstand will put you back between SLR 40,000 to 96,000.
There is the expectation that a large number of travelling fans will go some way to bridge the gap, but this is far from guaranteed.