Asia Cup 2018: India vs Hong Kong, a prelude to Pakistan match

With India starting their Asia Cup 2018 campaign against Hong Kong on Tuesday, it could be considered as a warm-up game for India. The following day — on Wednesday — India would take on arch-rivals Pakistan in a high-octane game.

The temperature in Dubai is currently around 43-degree centigrade, it would be a huge task for Rohit Sharma & Co to play back-to-back matches. India’s displeasure over the scheduling wasn’t addressed properly when the fixtures were prepared.

India are expected to field a full-strength side against minnows Hong Kong on Tuesday to get the tuning right for the next day, which the entire world is looking up to. A fit Mahendra Singh Dhoni along with Ambati Rayudu, KL Rahul, Shikhar Dhawan will make a strong batting for the Men in Blue in the showpiece event.

Also Read: Asia Cup a rehearsal for 2019 World Cup: Rohit Sharma

Despite having a dismal 84-day tour to England which eventually ended in a whimper, Indians are hot favourites in the Asia Cup. Pakistan are also a strong contender but defending champions India’s show in the Asia Cup has always been excellent winning the championship for six times. Pakistan won the championship twice.

India has a strong bowling too apart from the much-celebrated batting line-up. Yuzvendra Chahal and Kuldeep Yadav are the main weapons Sharma would be looking up to when they take the field on Tuesday. But it would just be to shortlist the final XI for the very next day. It would be a chance for Sharma to win a trophy on his first full tour as skipper of Team India.

Though veteran Dhoni is not in his elements and was also booed by the crowd in England at Lord’s during the second one-dayer against England, here things could just be different. His experience will come into play and his unmatched wicketkeeping skills are still something that can win India matches even today.

Sharma had said a couple of days ago that no team is a pushover and that any team can win the trophy, it’s unlikely that Hong Kong will be able to give trouble to star-studded India tomorrow. It is the match on Wednesday against Pakistan that may decide the winners of this trophy. The other teams in the fray are Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Afghanistan.

Also Read: Asia Cup 2018: In Kohli’s absence, Rayudu looks up to ‘go-to-man’ MS Dhoni

The squads:

India: Rohit Sharma (captain), Shikhar Dhawan, Lokesh Rahul, Ambati Rayudu, Manish Pandey, Kedar Jadhav, MS Dhoni, Dinesh Karthik, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah, Shardul Thakur, Khaleel Ahmed, Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel.

Hong Kong: Anshuman Rath (captain), Babar Hayat, Cameron McAulsan, Scott McKechnie, Waqas Khan, Christopher Carter, Ehsan Khan, Ehsan Nawaz, Arshad Mohammad, Nadeem Ahmed, Raag Kapur, Tanveer Ahmed, Aftab Hussain, Aizaz Khan, Kinchit Shah, Tanwir Afzal, Nizakat Khan.