Rohit Sharma will captain Team India in the 2022 edition of the Asia Cup starting 27th of August in UAE and the “men in blue” will be one of the favorites to lift the title.
Team India will take on their arch-rivals for the first time after a 10-wicket loss in Dubai last year but according to Sharma things will be different this time around. This time under the captaincy of Rohit, the Indian team is a strong contender to win the title.
The team will try its best to win the title for the eighth time. In the Asia Cup 2022, both India and Pakistan will start with a mutual clash which will take place on August 28.
This Wednesday, while addressing the media, the Indian skipper said, “Asia Cup is happening after a long time, but we played Pakistan last year in Dubai, where obviously the result did not go our way. But the Asia Cup 2022 is different now.” The team is playing differently and has prepared differently, so a lot of things have changed from then. But for us, we need to assess the conditions and keep in mind the fact that we will be playing in 40-plus degrees. We need to assess all those factors and prepare accordingly.”
“My thought has always been that we will not focus on the opponent, but we will continue to play our game. We played against West Indies and England, and in both cases, we did not think about who our opposition was, but we focused on things that we had to do as a team and what we had to achieve. Similarly, in the Asia Cup 2022, our focus will be on what to achieve as a team and not think about who we are facing – be it Pakistan, Bangladesh, or Sri Lanka,” he added.
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With the T20 World Cup 2022, just months away, the Indian skipper said that the blueprint or template for the team is more or less set.
He later said, “There are still about two-and-a-half months left for the T20 World Cup. Before that, we have the Asia Cup and two home series against Australia and South Africa. So, more or less 80-90 percent of your team is set, of course, there could be three-four changes if at all depending on the conditions. As of now, we have been playing in India and will play in UAE, so the conditions in Australia will be different. We need to check what suits our team in Australia.”
However, Indian pacer Jasprit Bumrah will be out of action due to a back injury and Sharma emphasized the importance of “building a bench strength”, given the amount of cricket played by the team, weighing the injury factor.
At a time when questions are being raised over the future of ODI cricket, he supported ODI cricket and said “Mera naam hi One-day cricket se bana hai. Sab bekar ki baatein hai. People were earlier talking about Test cricket, people are not getting things to talk about. For me, cricket is important – whatever be the format. I would never say that ODI is getting finished or T20 is getting finished or Tests are nearing an end.”
So, Rohit Sharma backed ODI cricket, mentioned the team’s preparations regarding the T20 world cup 2022, and cleared his thought and team’s intent for upcoming hyped India vs Pakistan match in the Asia cup 2022.
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