The eagerly anticipated Asia Cup match between India and Pakistan is quickly approaching. On August 28, the bitter rivals will fight in Dubai during the group round. It’s common for athletes to be nervous before a game, but India’s captain Rohit Sharma is making an effort to ensure that there is a calm environment among the team. 

Rohit stated that although the match will undoubtedly be under pressure, Pakistan will eventually be “just another opposition” for him.

“Obviously, it is a very exciting game. Everyone watches the game, especially India-Pakistan. It is a high-pressure game without a doubt, I think within the group, we want to create quite a normal atmosphere. We do not want to hype this game too much within ourselves. Let people outside hype the game, that’s their job to do it but for us, it is just a game of cricket and a battle between bat and ball which we have to dominate,”

Rohit said on Star Sports’ show ‘Follow The Blues’

In their prior encounter at the same location, which served as their opening match of the T20 World Cup 2021, India had lost to Pakistan in a World Cup match for the first time ever, with players like captain Babar Azam, Mohammad Rizwan, and Shaheen Shah Afridi playing key roles in the historic victory.

“I think the guys who have not played against them or have played 1-2 games against them, for them also, for us, me and Rahul bhai, it is important for us to talk to these guys and letting them know it is just another opposition we will be playing. For us, it will be like any other India-Pakistan game we play, we have to focus on the game and what we need to do as individuals,”

he added.

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India squad for Asia Cup: Rohit Sharma (Captain), KL Rahul (vice-captain), Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Deepak Hooda, Rishabh Pant (wicket-keeper), Dinesh Karthik (wicket-keeper), Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, R. Ashwin, Yuzvendra Chahal, Ravi Bishnoi, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Arshdeep Singh, Avesh Khan.