Asia Cup: SKY-led team start as favourites as India, Pakistan to clash again after handshake row

Asia Cup: Team India skipper Suryakumar Yadav (Courtesy: Reuters photo)

You can feel the unease here in Dubai. Yet one more India Pakistan game and yet one more time you can feel that it is just not cricket that is going on out there. The talk is about handshake and more. Will it be anything different and will the teams do something more this time round? Will the match referee, and yes it is Andy Pycroft who will officiate, be more guarded and more conscious of every action of is? What about security? Will the locals make sure that no fan does anything untoward and creates an issue? How strict will be the protocols?

In all of this the sport is kind of lost. If we focus on the on ground, the game on the 22 yard strip, you realise that India are considerably ahead of Pakistan. Sheer quality of the Indian team is such that the gulf is rather difficult to breach unless there is a miracle. One thing is for sure- India hasn’t yet played their best cricket in this competition. And yet they have won every game fairly comfortably. If a team continues to win games comfortably without playing at their best, it clearly tells you how good the team is and how good the bench strength is of that team.

Take the cases of Jasprit Bumrah and Hardik Pandya. While Hardik has taken some stunning catches, he hasn’t bowled to his liking yet. Bumrah too has conceded a few more runs than he would have liked. And yet it hasn’t really mattered. Kuldeep has been stellar and has been ably assisted by Varun and Axar. Varun looks hugely impressive each time he bowls and only a fool will underestimate Axar’s contribution to the team. Add the Shivam Dube and Abhishek Sharma options and you realise it is a complete bowling attack. You have your base covered for every kind of situation and that’s what gives India the edge.

In batting, Abhishek Sharma has been motoring along. He is scoring at a strike rate of over 200 in almost every game and that’s what Pakistan will have to negotiate. Gill hasn’t scored in two games and will clearly want to make amends in the one that matters. Surya has looked absolutely magical in practice and even Sanju got a long time out in the middle in the game against Oman. Tilak too has played some strong cameos and the truth is the Indian batting looks ready for the super four stage.

If I go purely by cricketing logic, I don’t see Pakistan being able to match India. If India plays to potential, there is just one winner and that’s India. For Pakistan to win not only will they have to punch above their weight and play cricket of a very different level, they will also have to hope that India has a really poor day with multiple players performing at their worst. Such miracles rarely happen in sport and that’s the truth.

India do start favourites but because it is cricket and the format is T-20, I’d give Pakistan a 20 percent chance in the contest. They need a miracle and a huge one to upset India.