India stormed into the Super Fours after thrashing Nepal by 10 wickets in the second group stage game in the Asia Cup on Monday. The men in blue will play three matches in the next round of the continental event and one of the encounters will be against Pakistan; at the R Premadasa Stadium in Colombo on Sunday. Rohit Sharma & Co will be up against a fearsome Pakistan bowling attack once again but unlike the previous encounter, India will look to get going right from the beginning.
Earlier on Saturday, Shaheen Shah Afridi ran through India’s top-order and dismissed the likes of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli cheaply. The top-order went through a horrible collapse, getting reduced to 66 for 4 in 14.1 overs. India’s condition looked grim until Ishan Kishan and Hardik Pandya joined forces and stitched a 138-run stand for the fifth wicket, helping India post 266 after batting first.
The weakness of Indian top-order batters against left-arm fast bowling has been repeatedly exposed against the men in green, leading to the notion that Rohit & Co can’t play Pakistan bowlers fluently. But batting coach Vikram Rathour strongly disagrees with that.
During the post-match presser on Monday, Rathour said Pakistan do have a good attack but the Indian batters are also capable of putting in good scores.
“Of course, they are a good bowling attack. The conditions were different in the game against Pakistan. The wicket was doing something when the new ball was into the play and there was a rain interruption as well which the batters usually don’t like to have. But we managed to recover after losing early wickets, which is a good sign,” Rathour told reporters.
“Aisa kuch nahi hai ki khel nahi sakte hain (It’s nothing like that we can’t play them). They have a good bowling attack and on certain days, they will have the edge. But the day we get a good start, our batters are also capable of putting up a big score,” he added.
