Asia Cup: Pakistan pacer Hasan Ali joins squad ahead of India-Pak match
DUBAI: Pakistan pacer Hasan Ali has joined the squad in Dubai ahead of the blockbuster Asia Cup campaign opener against India today, said Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) on Sunday.
Pakistan team dealt with another blow ahead of the clash against India as their fast bowler Mohammad Wasim has been ruled out of the T20 Asia Cup due to a left side strain, Pakistan Cricket Board announced on Friday. Hasan Ali was named as his replacement.
Team management has decided to keep Wasim along with the squad where he will complete his rehabilitation.
Team India and Pakistan will be locking horns in a much-anticipated clash to mark the beginning of their Asia Cup campaigns, in India's case, their title defence.
Emotions will be running high for both sides this time. India will be looking forward to starting off their title defence with a bang and avenging their loss during the last meeting at ICC T20 World Cup 2021. On the other hand, Pakistan will be aiming to down Team India once again and carry on with the momentum they have had over India since their last outing.
Historically in T20Is, India has an overall edge over Pakistan. Ever since their first T20I meeting at ICC T20 World Cup 2007, both sides have clashed nine times in the shortest format of the game. India has won seven of these games while Pakistan has only won two matches.
But the last time these two met was during the ICC T20 World Cup 2021 back in October 2021, Team India had a rare slip-up against their arch-rivals. Left-arm pacer Shaheen Afridi destroyed the Indian top order with two quick strikes. Contributions from then-skipper Virat Kohli (57) and Rishabh Pant (39) took India to 151/7 in their 20 overs but knocks from Mohammed Rizwan (79*) and Pakistani skipper Babar Azam (68*) meant that Men in Blue succumbed to a shocking ten-wicket defeat.
India will be looking forward to putting up a big fight this time around and getting their revenge. They have been in fantastic form as of late, having defeated England and West Indies in their respective territories in ODI and T20I series. They are also the number one side in T20Is. Men in Blue delivered excellent performances on these tours.
Coming to Pakistan, they are the third-ranked side in ICC T20I rankings and are not to be taken lightly.
India: Rohit Sharma (captain), 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
Pakistan: Babar Azam (c), Shadab Khan, Asif Ali, Fakhar Zaman, Haider Ali, Haris Rauf, Iftikhar Ahmed, Khushdil Shah, Mohammad Nawaz, Mohammad Rizwan, Hasan Ali, Naseem Shah, Shahnawaz Dahani, Usman Qadir, Mohammad Hasnain. (ANI)