Asia Cup 2018: Super Four, Match 3, India vs Pakistan- India Predicted XI

India came into the 2018 Asia Cup as one of the favourites, despite Virat Kohli not being in the squad and they indeed have played like champions thus far. The Men in Blue have looked the most settled among the participating teams having won all their matches thus far. They had to strain a wee bit against Hong Kong, but the team has got better with the progression of the event.

India are next scheduled to play Pakistan tomorrow in the second match of the Super 4 at Dubai International Cricket Stadium and undoubtedly have the upper hand going into the second Indo-Pak clash of the event. On the other hand, the Men in Green are expected to come out with all guns blazing against their arch-rivals. In our article, we take a look at India’s predicted eleven.

Openers (Rohit Sharma (C), Shikhar Dhawan)

Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan, the two openers, have done an exceptional task thus far and made light work of the task they been presented with on the cricket pitch. Rohit missed out against Hong after being dismissed by Hong Kong. In the second match against Pakistan, he didn’t go berserk initially but stepped on the gas as he got the measure of the conditions and the bowling.

Even against Bangladesh, he looked in ominous touch for the opponents. Dhawan chipped in with a masterful knock against Anshuman Rath and Co. However, he would be disappointed for the reason that he wasn’t able to score half-centuries against Pakistan and the Tigers on decent batting wickets in Dubai. The onus will again be on the duo to take India off to a decent beginning.

Middle-order (Ambati Rayudu, MS Dhoni (wk), Dinesh Karthik, Kedar Jadhav)

The middle-order isn’t short of class as well as firepower by any means. Ambati Rayudu has done an excellent job at number three and there’s no question of replacing him. MS Dhoni came to bat number four the last time and even he looked at ease till the time he was at the crease. Dinesh Karthik has also chipped in with short, yet useful knocks lower down the order.

Kedar Jadhav hasn’t had much to do with the bat, but his off-breaks have been hard to pick for the batters, especially the Pakistani batsmen, who had very little clues of the deliveries hurled at them by Jadhav. Apart from bowling, Jadhav would also want to make contributions with the bat. Moreover, it will be interesting to see how the four perform if put under pressure.

All-rounder (Ravindra Jadeja)

The Saurashtra cricketer donned the national colours in limited-overs cricket after more than a year, but he didn’t look rusty, much to his team’s delight. The Bangladeshi batsmen tried to attack the left-arm spinner only to give their wickets away. The Pakistani batsman batsmen can’t afford to take him lightly. He may also be required to show his prowess with the bat if India lose early wickets.

Bowlers (Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal Jasprit Bumrah)

Uttar Pradesh-born Bhuvneshwar Kumar has been India’s most successful bowlers in the event having churned out six wickets on pitches, which hasn’t had much to offer to the bowlers. Jasprit Bumrah has five wickets in his kitty and has pinned batsmen at crunch moments of the matches. Both troubled Sarfraz Ahmed’s men last time around and would be keen to do well.

Prior to the event, Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal were deemed to be tormenting prospects for the opponents, however, they haven’t quite been able to make frequent inroads in the opposition batting lineup. In the meantime, one aspect that needs to be brought forth is their economy rates, which have been phenomenal with Chahal’s 4.44 being the most expensive of them all.

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