Rohit Sharma will lead India in the Asia Cup 2022 starting Saturday. Sharma eyes a second consecutive Asia Cup trophy, having led the side to the title in 2018. The tournament that time, though, was held in 50-over format; this year, keeping in mind the preparations for the T20 World Cup two months later, the Asia Cup will be played in the 20-over format.
India will kick off their campaign on Sunday with a high-voltage clash against Pakistan in Dubai – the same venue where the Men In Blue were hammered by 10 wickets by Babar Azam’s team last year at the T20 World Cup 2021.
Rohit Sharma doesn’t care about covid-19 and hugs Pakistani fans
In quite a hilarious incident, India skipper Rohit Sharma met and effectively hugged some Pakistani fans who came to see India’s training session in Dubai. And for that he didn’t care about the covid-19 virus which is still active around the world.
In a video that has gone viral on social media, Rohit Sharma was called upon by some Pakistani fans who asked him, apart from selfies, to even hug, which Sharma duly obliged forgetting that he’s putting himself to risk of contracting the virus again – in July he’d missed the Edgbaston Test against England after testing covid-19 positive days before the game.
One of the fans can be heard saying that he’d been waiting for 10 years to see Rohit live, and today his dream was fulfilled.
Another fan pleased Rohit to hug him even though there was a steel barrier between them. Amusingly, Rohit also hugged the fan through that barrier to the cheers of the others present.
You can watch the video here:
Oye Hoye
pic.twitter.com/u48Caqj53C
— Out Of Context Cricket (@GemsOfCricket) August 26, 2022
Fun aside, this act of Rohit Sharma, the Indian captain, is being criticised by many as this was a very risky decision from the Indian skipper to come in direct contact with fans. It is to be seen if the Asian Cricket Council (ACC) makes any statement and takes any action against Sharma.
Meanwhile, India are slotted in Group A for the first round 1. After facing Pakistan on Sunday, India will meet Hong Kong on Wednesday. The top two teams from this group and from the other – which comprise Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Afghanistan – will proceed to the Super 4 round. The top two teams in Super 4 will meet in the final on September 11.
India’s squad for Asia Cup 2022:
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.
