Team India is set to lock horns with Pakistan for the second time in the ongoing Asia Cup 2022 in a Super 4 tie on Sunday. The Men in Blue have been unbeaten so far in the tournament while Babar Azam & Co will come into the contest on the back of a remarkable victory against Hong Kong.
Rohit Sharma and his boys defeated Pakistan when they squared off against each other last Sunday. The Indian pace attack, led by Bhuvneshwar Kumar, picked up all 10 wickets, restricting the arch-rivals to a paltry 147. They did manage to win the next by 40 runs, but the likes of Avesh Khan and Arshdeep Singh turned out to be very expensive as they leaked 33 runs in the last two overs of the Hong Kong innings.
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The same opposition was mauled by the Pakistan bowling attack on Friday. Led by vice-captain Shadab Khan (4 for 8), the Babar Azam’s bowlers bundled out Hong Kong to a below-par score of 38, clinching the game by 155 runs to confirm a Super 4 spot.
Prior to Sunday’s Super 4 clash, Indian head coach Rahul Dravid addressed a press conference in which he was asked about the bowling line-ups of the two teams ahead. Dravid praised the Pakistani bowling attack but also admitted that his team has also produced a ‘pretty good’ show in the ongoing tournament.
“Theek he, unke bowlers ne bhi aachi bowling ki thi. They are a very good bowling side. But even we bowled well to restrict them to 147. No matter what score you restrict an opposition to, numbers might be different, but at the end of the day, bowling analysis is important. You are judged by the results you produce. And bowling analysis of our fast bowlers was also pretty good. I certainly respect their (Pakistan) bowling but I am confident that we have a very good bowling attack as well which produces results,” he said.
Dravid’s next statement left everyone present in the room in splits. He said, “It might not be as…I wanted to use a word, but I can’t use that word. It’s coming out of my mind, but I can’t use it here.”
In order to help out Dravid, another journalist asked if the word was “exuberant”. The Indian head coach replied, “Not exuberant. It’s a little bit four-letter, starts with ‘s’.”
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