India vs Pakistan Live Score: ‘If India bats first, Pakistan will … ‘
Rajkumar Sharma, the childhood coach of legendary Indian batter Virat Kohli, spoke ahead of the India-Pakistan Super Four clash on Sunday during the Asia Cup, stating that Pakistan would be on the back foot if India chooses to bat first, and adding that there isn’t much competition between the two sides anymore.
After India’s dominant seven-wicket win in their first group-stage clash, the arch-rivals are preparing for this high-profile rematch in Dubai, which could play a crucial role in deciding the teams’ paths to the final.
The match has already generated headlines due to the “handshake row”, after Indian skipper Suryakumar Yadav and Shivam Dube walked off without shaking hands with Pakistan in the earlier encounter. India will look to reaffirm their dominance, while Pakistan may try to use the off-field controversies as motivation and potentially spring a surprise.
Rajkumar emphasised that Pakistan should focus on cricket rather than making an issue of the handshake incident, noting that such controversies reduce the charm of India-Pakistan matches. He also pointed out that India—and even teams like Bangladesh and Sri Lanka—are well ahead of Pakistan.
“The Indian team is in very good form, and the way our batting is, we will surely dominate in the match… The Pakistan team should focus on cricket rather than making an issue of Indian players not shaking hands with them. There is no use of all this, they made such a big deal out of it. The charm of the India-Pakistan clash lessens because of these things. There used to be so much hype about these matches across both sides, but there is no competition between India and Pakistan, India is way better than them. Even Bangladesh and Sri Lanka look way better than Pakistan,” he said.
On whether India should bat or bowl first, Rajkumar added: “If India bats first, Pakistan will go on the back foot because they are not considered great chasers.”
The coach also praised opener Abhishek Sharma for his aggressive starts in the powerplay, while noting that Pakistan would likely strategize against him, with execution being the key.
“Abhishek has this style, he has been batting really well and dominates right from the start. All teams plan things in their meetings as they can access the video and look at a player’s strength and weaknesses and talk to their coach about it. Then the coaches guide them accordingly. But, it all depends on execution and how much Abhishek can counter them,” he added.
