With India Miles Ahead Of Pakistan, Contest Lacks On-Ground Hype

Dubai: A spoilt-for-choice Indian squad will be the favourite by a country mile against arch-rivals Pakistan here on Sunday in their Asia Cup encounter which is strangely devoid of any hype despite border tensions that have only risen in the past few months.

There is no dearth of context in the contest with a T20 World Cup set to be played in India in four months' time. But for the first time in many years, a cricket match between India and Pakistan, that too scheduled on a Sunday, lacks the kind of high-pitched narrative that always comes with the territory.

There are batters like Shubman Gill, Suryakumar Yadav, Abhishek Sharma, a pacer like Jasprit Bumrah, spinners of Kuldeep Yadav and Varun Chakravarthy's calibre in the Indian playing XI. The Indians look way more menacing on paper compared to Pakistan, who are trying to find their feet under new skipper Salman Ali Agha.

However, considering the fickle nature of the format, there is always the chance of an upset but against this Indian team, the probability remains low.

One of the most talented batters in Pakistan's line-up, opener Saim Ayub, middle-order willow-wielder Hasan Nawaz and the troika of spinners in Abrar Ahmed, Sufiyan Muqeen and Mohammed Nawaz would love to prove a point in a new look team that dumped the philosophy of depending heavily on Babar Azam and Muhammad Rizwan.

With thousands of tickets still available and very few fans turning up at the India practice on Friday, the festive excitement surrounding the match is missing.

The social media calls for a boycott by India has found resonance to an extent and as a result, no one knows how many BCCI officials, who otherwise make a beeline during marquee events, will turn up on Sunday.

The travelling media is also aiming to spice up things but predictably representatives of both nations have dead batted any probing queries which even remotely touch on politics.

Normally, an Indo-Pak match has been about Indian batters locking horns with Pakistani pacers but this time around, the spinners of both sides will have a significant role to play considering that Jasprit Bumrah and Shaheen Shah Afridi are the only specialist pacers who will be seen in action on Sunday.

Teams (from):

India: Suryakumar Yadav (captain), Shubman Gill, Abhishek Sharma, Tilak Varma, Hardik Pandya, Jitesh Sharma (wk), Shivam Dube, Axar Patel, Jasprit Bumrah, Arshdeep Singh, Varun Chakravarthy, Kuldeep Yadav, Harshit Rana, Sanju Samson, Rinku Singh

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