7-time Asia champions, India will begin their Asia Cup 2022 title defence against neighbours Pakistan on August 28 in Dubai. This will also be the first time the two Asian giants collide after Babar Azam’s team’s victory by 10 wickets vs India in last year’s T20 Worl CUp, at this very venue.
India have been on an upward curve since their group stage exit at T20 World Cup last year, under the new leadership of Rohit Sharma and Rahul Dravid.
At the Asia Cup 2022, which is in the T20 format, the Men In Blue will look to make a hat-trick of the Asia Cup having won the tournament in 2018 (ODI format) and in 2016 (T20 format).
Here are 3 reasons why India could once again win the Asia Cup:
India’s new batting approach
Rohit Sharma had revealed that since he took over and Rahul Dravid became the coach, the pair had decided to change India’s brand of batting in the shortest format: they have shed their conservative, low-risk starts – to the gung-ho, all-out attack approach, which we have seen the likes of England and West Indies bat in the past years.
This has materialised well and truly as Sharma expected: in 2022, Indian batsmen have batted at a run rate of 9.29 – which is the second highest of all the teams, only behind New Zealand’s 9.6 who have played a number of matches against lower ranked teams like Ireland, Scotland and Netherlands.
Skipper Rohit Sharma has led from the front in his approach: Sharma’s batting strike in powerplay this year in T20Is has been 148; while from 2019 to last year’s T20 WC it was 139. The likes of Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant, and Dinesh Karthik have been given the freedom, and the security of their places, to play their risky shots without any worries.
India’s superb form
India are perhaps the most in-form T20I team in the world at the moment: since the end of the T20 World Cup last year, India have won 19 of their 24 T20Is. The next in most victories are Austria, Czech Republic, Malaysia, Nepal and Ireland. And then New Zealand with 9 wins – 7 of them vs Scotland, Netherlands and Ireland.
T20 World Cup 2021 champions, Australia, haven’t played many T20Is: 6 wins in 9 matches; while England have only 4 wins in 11 T20Is. Not only India are the firm favourites to win the Asia Cup 2022, they are also a major contender to triumph at the T20 World Cup 2022 in Australia.
Variety in bowling
Although India will miss the services of Jasprit Bumrah and Harshal Patel due to injuries in the Asia Cup, they have plenty of firepower and variety in their bowling attack. Bhuvneshwar Kumar has been in terrific form with the new ball – he bagged the Man of the Series award vs South Africa and England – while Arshdeep Singh was perhaps the best – or second best after Bumrah – death bowler this year’s IPL.
Avesh Khan and Hardik Pandya have produced good numbers in patches and will be hitting the deck hard at the lengths which makes batters uneasy in playing their shots.
The spin department will be led by the ever-canny Yuzvendra Chahal, in support of whom will be the astute Ravichandran Ashwin who has been impressive since his return and shown marked improvement in his batting. Ravi Bishnoi, the leg-spinner whose stock ball is the googly, has made it tough for batters to read in his short career at the top so far. And Ravindra Jadeja is well adept in keeping things tight.
India and Pakistan both have announced their squads:
India: Rohit Sharma (c), KL Rahul, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant, Deepak Hooda, Dinesh Karthik, Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, R Ashwin, Yuzvendra Chahal, Ravi Bishnoi, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Arshdeep Singh, Avesh Khan. Standbys: Shreyas Iyer, Axar Patel, Deepak Chahar.
Pakistan: Babar Azam (c), Shadab Khan, Asif Ali, Fakhar Zaman, Haider Ali, Haris Rauf, Iftikhar Ahmed, Khushdil Shah, Mohammad Nawaz, Mohammad Rizwan, Mohammad Wasim Jnr, Naseem Shah, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Shahnawaz Dahani, Usman Qadir.
