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Pakistan are favourites to win the Asia Cup: Sanjay Manjrekar
At a time when big names are backing India to win the ongoing Asia Cup, Sanjay Manjrekar has tipped arch-rivals Pakistan to walk away with the title, given the fact that they play most of their cricket in the UAE.
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Nonetheless, he said that India are strong contenders too.
Pakistan on Sunday decimated Hong Kong by eight wickets and India is slated to open their campaign against the debutants on Tuesday.
“I think Pakistan start as favourites more than India, because they have been playing in those conditions (in the UAE) for a while now and it’s a team which is on the surge,” said Manjrekar as quoted by PTI.
“India, of course, are resting Virat (Kohli), which takes a lot of strength away from the team,” he further added.
Justifying his opinion, Manjrekar said, ”
India are obviously one of the contenders, but when you look at favouritism, (question arises) which team can be rated as the strongest. It’s Pakistan because of where it (the tournament) is being played.’
A veteran of 74 ODIs and 37 Tests, Manjrekar reckoned that the Indian bowling attack looks much more balanced with the inclusion of wrist spinners Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal.
“India is a very good 50 overs outfit. India in the Test matches struggled a bit overseas, but if you look at their 50-over record, its very good in all conditions.
“Earlier, India had batting strength but the bowling did not quite measure up. Now they also have game changers in the middle, so the team wins more matches than it used to because of Chahal and Kuldeep Yadav in the middle. It’s a more balanced 50 overs team in a long, long time,” Manjrekar added.
With India’s middle-order woes being one of the factors for Rohit Sharma and co to solve, Manjrekar said that Shreyas Iyer could be given a chance to prove himself in the line-up.
“At the moment Ambati Rayadu, Dinesh Karthik and Manish Pandey are in the fray. Kedar Jadhav is also there, but I would like to see Shreyas Iyer get a look-in before the World Cup. K L Rahul will get (to bat at) number three because Virat is not there,” he said.
“We will have a look at him (Rahul) and he is also another middle order option for India. So it is very important (to settle middle order woes). Because India need a couple of in-form reliable middle-order batsmen. So every match from now on would actually be about settling that (middle order) issue and most of the other areas are taken care of, ” concluded the former Indian cricketer.
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