Mohammad Rizwan, a wicketkeeper-batter for Pakistan, expressed his excitement about playing India in the Asia Cup for the second time on Sunday and stated that his teammates had joked amongst themselves that the match would be the “best of three” in a series of matches.
Mohammad Rizwan, a wicketkeeper-batter for Pakistan, expressed his excitement about playing arch-rivals India for the second time in the Asia Cup on Sunday. He said that his teammates have been joking with each other that the two teams will compete in a “best of three-match series” against each other in the ongoing continental tournament. It is possible that India and Pakistan will play each other in the summit clash that will take place here on September 11, regardless of the result of the match that will take place on Sunday. If this occurs, the archrivals will play each other a total of three times, all of which will take place on Sundays. On the previous Sunday, India had defeated Pakistan by a score of five wickets.
“Fans from both countries are looking forward to seeing each other again in the championship game the following week. “We have jokingly remarked among ourselves that it’s a best of three-match series (between India and Pakistan),” Rizwan said in Sharjah following Pakistan’s monumental victory against Hong Kong by 155 runs.
Due to political issues, the two nations have not played each other in a bilateral series in almost a decade, but the Asia Cup has satisfied part of the thirst that the supporters have been feeling in this time period.
Rizwan was the hero of the show with an unbeaten 78 as Pakistan reached 193/2 and then bowled out Hong Kong for a record low of 38 to ensure their place in the “Super 4”
On Sunday, Pakistan will kick off their quest for the ‘Super 4’ against India. This match will be a rematch of Pakistan’s Asia Cup opener, which took place at the very same site a week ago.
India and Pakistan are expected to finish in the top two spots in the round-robin Super 4 competition, which they will be participating in alongside Afghanistan and Sri Lanka. This will set up a rematch of last year’s Asia Cup final, which will take place on September 11 in this city.
When playing India, there is always a lot of pressure. Even individuals in regions outside of Asia are anticipating it. Because there is so much emotion invested in this game, each and every match feels very much like a “final.”
To advance to the final, it is imperative that we play good cricket. The 30-year-old player stated that it is obvious that we need to improve our cricket by putting in a lot of hard effort.
Rizwan and Babar Azam, who was captaining the team, were instrumental in Pakistan’s victory over India at the Twenty20 World Cup that was held in this very stadium a year ago.
According to Rizwan, the key to winning these high-stakes games is to remain calm and composed no matter what happens.
“The burden will be equally on India and ourselves, but the result will be with whoever stays brave and keeps calm during the entire process.”
“The more you stick to the rules of the game, the better it will be since it is the correct action to take. I often remind the players that at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter if they are playing India or Hong Kong—you still have to play with a bat and a ball.
“Therefore, the key is to keep things on a basic level. Yes, this is a significant game, and the boys are feeling very confident about their chances. We are going to put in a lot of effort. From Pakistan’s point of view, they are perhaps holding out hope that their great captain, Babar Azam, will start scoring runs again.
Rizwan has stated that it is only a matter of time before his captain finds his form, despite the fact that the world’s best T20I and ODI batter is having a slow start to the Asia Cup with low scores of 10 and 9 against India and Hong Kong respectively. However, Rizwan believes that it is only a matter of time before his captain finds his form.
“Babar is a superstar, and he is the number one performer in the world.” Even though it has only been two innings, we still joke that he doesn’t have an evil eye since he knows how to handle the situation appropriately. Even though he has only played for us in the last two games, he has already scored a significant number of runs for us in the past.
