Ahead of the high-octane clash against Pakistan on Sunday, India batter KL Rahul said that the clash against the arch-rivals will be a great opportunity for the Men in Blue to challenge themselves at the start of their Asia Cup 2022 campaign. India will take on Pakistan on 28 August in their opening game of the T20I tournament. Rahul had to stay away from cricket due to injury in IPL 2022 before he made a comeback in the recently-concluded ODI series in Zimbabwe.
“For now, we are all very excited as players. We always look forward to this India versus Pakistan clash. It will be a good challenge for us to compete against a big team like Pakistan. As we all know there is a huge history and rivalry between India and Pakistan as these games are always been high intensity. It’s a great opportunity for us to challenge ourselves,” said KL Rahul said during a press conference. In their 13th attempt in World Cups, Pakistan finally managed to beat India in the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup on 24 October 2021 and did so comfortably on a night when almost everything went according to plan for them. Shaheen Shah Afridi was the brightest star of the night.
Talking about India’s defeat against Pakistan in the last World Cup, KL Rahul said,” Yes obviously losing any game and in the World Cup hurts. When you enter big tournaments, every team wants to play big and unfortunately, it did not happen with us. We were outplayed by really strong Pakistan. So now we get an opportunity to play once again against them.”
“We are looking forward to going all out there and playing our best game, the match starts from zero, and there might be a history of how many times the teams played against each other and won but it does not matter as the game only starts from zero. It’s great to see the new approach of the Indian team, started after the last world cup,” Rohit Sharma’s deputy said. Team India is looking for their eight-time Asia Cup victory. Asia Cup 2022 will be played in UAE, starting from 27 August through 11 September.
“We always look forward to the India-Pakistan clash as we don’t play each other anywhere else but in these big tournaments. As it’s the first game of the tournament for both of us, so we want to start our campaign on a winning note,” added the Indian opener.
The star batter of the team Virat Kohli will make his return to cricket after a short break, which saw him miss the tour of the West Indies during the Asia Cup 2022. His first match on comeback will be against arch-rivals Pakistan on 28 August.
Fans will hope that Kohli regains his form during the tournament and hits his much-anticipated 71st international ton soon. Talking about the former India captain, Rahul said, “We all want Virat to get back in form, we’re not worried about it. His mindset always remains the same, to win matches for India and he’s done that for many years”, Rahul said.