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Former Australia pacer, Brett Lee thinks that Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan are the two key players for India. Not only against Pakistan but against every team in the Asia Cup scheduled from September 15 to 28 in UAE.
As due to Virat Kohli taking rest during the six-nation tournament, opening batsman for the team India is Rohit Sharma. He will take charge of the men in blue in a crucial tournament.
“Rohit and Dhawan can lead the Indian side from the front as captain and vice-captain,”
He believes that Rohit will get the best out of himself and also the team. Because we gave him extra bit of responsibility to lead the Indian side.
Sharma has scored 224 runs at an average of 32 in the 10 innings. That he played in the Asia Cup so far, with two fifties to his name. Dhawan, on the other hand, has participated in just one edition of the tournament in 2014. He accumulated 192 runs at an average of 48 in the four innings he played.
Lee, who scalped 690 wickets for Australia in an international career that spanned over 13 years. He believes that the conditions in the UAE will suit the batting style of the Indian opening pair.
The Asia Cup is scheduled from September 15 to 28 in UAE with Sri Lanka taking on Bangladesh in the tournament opener.
Pakistan’s all-rounder Shoaib Malik while talking to media, stated that he sees the Asia Cup match against arch-rivals India just as a regular match.
“The Asia Cup match against India is just a regular match for me,” he said. ”If you think too much about the India-Pakistan game then you create pressure for yourself. I would say that we should consider this just another game and would say the same to my team-mates,” former skipper said while talking to the media on Friday.
Malik, who represented Pakistan in 404 international matches, encouraged his teammates for Indo-Pak game. He said, “Whoever performs in the match against India will become a hero as a huge number of people watches it, so it’s a big opportunity for youngsters to perform”.
During the training session ahead of Asia Cup, the 36-year-old batsman told that the authorities designed conditions of United Arab Emirates (UAE) grounds according to the weather.
According to Malik, there should be at least two-three wicket-taking bowlers in the team in ODI format. He also said that the top order batsmen are performing really well, so we have a lot of expectations from them. However, he avoids responding to questions asked regarding Hafeez exclusion from the squad.
