Asia Cup: India Fire Warning Shots At Rivals With Big Win Over Pakistan Khaleej Times

The DJ at the Dubai International Stadium kept playing the biggest hits from both sides of the border, but the Asia Cup clash between bitter rivals India and Pakistan never hit great heights as a sporting contest.

Apart from the lack of the drama of an India-Pakistan match, what was also lacking was the customary handshake as the teams refused to greet each other at the end of the lop-sided match.

Perhaps it was not surprising given all the uproar and boycott calls that dominated the headlines before this Group A clash which took place barely four months after the two nuclear-armed South Asian countries came to the brink of an all-out war.

With a new-look team, Pakistan are on a mission to find the right formula to make a deep run at next year's T20 World Cup.

But looking at their insipid display on Sunday, it's safe to say that Salman Agha's team have a long way to go.

India's complete dominance on the field, with their bowlers suffocating the opposition batting unit and the batters toying with the line and length of the Pakistani attack, exposed the gulf between the two teams.

Having restricted Pakistan to 127 for nine on the back of superb spells from spinners Kuldeep Yadav (4-0-18-3), Axar Patel (4-0-18-2), Varun Chakravarthy (4-0-18-1) and pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah (4-0-28-2), India reached home in just 15.5 overs.

Abhishek Sharma (31 off 13 balls, 4 fours, 2 sixes) was scintillating at the top, playing some audacious shots against Shaheen Shah Afridi.

India may have lost two wickets by the fourth over, but Sharma's flying start had already ended Pakistan's faint hopes of staging a fightback.

Skipper Suryakumar Yadav (47 off 37 balls) and Tilak Varma (31) enjoyed batting under the lights, with the former bringing the Indian fans to their feet with sumptuous shot-making.

India's emphatic seven-wicket win with 25 balls to spare is a warning shot at the rest of the teams as Suryakumar's men seemed to be on track to add the 2025 Asia Cup trophy to their impressive recent haul of the 2024 T20 World Cup and the 2025 ICC Champions Trophy titles.

Pakistan's troubles started as soon as the match began, as Agha's decision to bat first backfired.

Young opener Saim Ayub fell for his second straight duck of the tournament, offering an easy catch to Bumrah at point as Hardik Pandya earned the first breakthrough in the second ball of the match.

Sahibzada Farhan (40) tried to put up a fight, but the rest of the batters fell through a combination of poor shot selection and good bowling from India.

If not for Shaheen's cameo (33 not off 16 balls, 4 sixes), Pakistan, who were tottering at 83 for seven in the 17th over, would have slumped to an even more embarrassing total.

That would have been a real disaster for the UAE-based Indian and Pakistani fans who turned up in huge numbers to support their teams.

MENAFN14092025000049011007ID1110060493