Last Update on: September 1st, 2023 at 06:48 pm
Indian captain Rohit Sharma talked about the upcoming Asia Cup 2023 clash between India and Pakistan. He downplayed the rivalry and said that they as a team are focused on the opposition they are playing.
We are just sleeping away from the much-anticipated India vs Pakistan game. The Asia Cup 2023 clash will happen in Pallekele on 2nd September. It’ll no doubt be a high-intensity battle as both the teams over the past few years have played an exciting brand of cricket.
The last time India and Pakistan clashed in the game, was during the T20 World Cup 2022. But it’ll be a completely different challenge for both teams this time around. They will be playing on neutral conditions and with ODI being a different ball game altogether, it’ll test players of both sides inside out.
Rohit Sharma said that they are focused on doing the right things on the field whereas rivalry against Pakistan is for the people to talk.
Speaking during the press conference ahead of the game, he explained: “There are six very competitive teams in the Asia Cup and on a given day anyone can beat anyone. Rivalry is there for people to talk about. As a team, what we see is we have an opposition to play tomorrow and see what we want to do. What is going to help us is to keep doing the right things on the field.”
Rohit Sharma also applauded Pakistan for their cricket in the recent past. He also talked about the challenge of facing Pakistan bowlers, saying that they will need to use their experience of playing them.
He explained: “Pakistan have played really well in recent times in both T20Is and ODIs. They worked really hard to be No.1 and it’ll be a good challenge for us tomorrow. Look, in the nets, we don’t have Shaheen, Naseem or Rauf. We practice with who we have. They are all quality bowlers. We just have to use our experience to play them tomorrow.”
IND vs PAK: We try to keep our goals small and see what’s in front of us – Rohit Sharma
Rohit Sharma further went on to say that they have kept their goals small and will focus on one game at a time. He added that their main goal is to do well in the game against Pakistan.
He further explained: “We try to keep our goals small and see what’s in front of us. We have Pakistan to face tomorrow and we will focus on that first and then look ahead. We have given time to many players and they have another opportunity in a tournament where six teams play.
“The issues we want to address, we have addressed. Now we want to focus on doing well in these games.”
The last time India and Pakistan faced in the ODI game was during the 2019 World Cup. It saw Men in Blue winning the game easily. They would be hoping to replicate the same in the upcoming game.