In their second and final group league game of the Asia Cup on Wednesday, a jubilant India prepares to thrash underdogs Hong Kong. KL Rahul couldn’t have asked for a simpler opponent to regain his rhythm against. The Group A encounter for Rohit Sharma’s team against a team, primarily made up of Pakistani and Indian expats, who are otherwise not good enough to play first-class cricket in either of the two countries, won’t be more than a glorified net session.

Hardik Pandya‘s planned last over thriller gave India a hard-earned victory over Pakistan, and against Hong Kong, the batsmen will be the main focus of the match.

Rahul, whose first T20I in 2022 was against Pakistan the other night, would like to start the game strong and would take this chance to adopt a different batting strategy than his IPL one. In T20Is, teams want for an impact performance, and a 20-ball 45 is frequently more valuable than a 90-out-of-65-balls not.

As India prepares for the T2O World Cup, which will be hosted by Australia from October 16 to November 13, the quality of an innings and its significance in the overall scheme of the game are more crucial at this point.

To put it kindly, Hong Kong’s bowling won’t equal Pakistan’s quality, but there is always a level of trepidation when dealing with an unknown force. Rahul must therefore make the most of this chance to boost his self-confidence before the Super Fours and tournament’s crucial final stretch.

Since captain Rohit has stated that experimentation will continue, it shouldn’t come as a surprise if a different batting order is used on Wednesday.

The Hong Kong game will be all about Virat Kohli getting more quality hitting time in the middle against an opposition that is sure to be terrified by his mere presence there. Even Rohit would like to throw a couple into the crowd after a quiet game against Pakistan.

It will be intriguing to observe if Rishabh Pant replaces Dinesh Karthik in order to give him some playing time or if Ravindra Jadeja bats at No. 4 against Hong Kong.

Even without Shaheen Shah Afridi, India’s top order contributed significantly to the calibre of assault that was on display. India’s top order returned to their old safety first strategy against Pakistan.

Only when India plays against assaults with greater depth than that of England, the West Indies, or Sri Lanka can it be reliably determined whether its all-out attack exhibition in powerplay will succeed or fail.

Therefore, only against teams like Australia, Pakistan, South Africa, and New Zealand will the batting order’s attacking mentality be truly tested. There is no player who would want to sit out of a game like Hong Kong because it helps to bolster stats.

Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravi Bishnoi could also get a look in, letting Yuzvendra Chahal and Jadeja cool their heels a bit.

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Teams (from): India: 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.

Listen to the latest songs, only on JioSaavn.comHong Kong: Nizakat Khan (c), Kinchit Shah, Aftab Hussain, Aizaz Khan, Ateeq Iqbal, Babar Hayat, Dhananjay Rao, Ehsan Khan, Haroon Arshad, Scott McKechnie, Ghazanfar Mohammad, Mohammad Waheed, Ayush Shukla, Ahan Trivedi, Wajid Shah, Yasim Murtaza, Zeeshan Ali.