India vs Pakistan, Asia Cup 2022 Highlights: Hardik Pandya stars with bat and ball as India beat Pakistan in thriller

Mohammad Rizwan, Babar Azam, Fakhar Zaman, Iftikhar Ahmed, Khushdil Shah, Asif Ali, Mohammad Hasnain, Shadab Khan, Usman Qadir, Haris Rauf, Naseem Shah/Shahnawaz Dahani

Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul, Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant, Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Yuzvendra Chahal, Arshdeep Singh, Avesh Khan

The IPL and the T20 World Cup were both held in the UAE last year in consecutive months and the trend that was set in all grounds was win the toss, bowl first and win the match. Australia did that throughout the T20 World Cup and won their first ever title, providing a heartbreaking defeat to Pakistan along the way. Now yesterday, Afghanistan won the toss, bowled first and utterly decimated Sri Lanka. It has to be said though, Sri Lanka had some questionable umpiring going against them in addition to some utterly inexplicable batting mistakes. So that match may not have given a chance for a fair assesment of the conditions from the outside. 

Babar also waxed lyrical about the camaraderie between the India and Pakistan camps. However, the absence of Afridi would surely worry him more than the absence of Bumrah would worry Rohit. This is what he had to say about the injury to his pace spearhead: "Injuries are a part of the game and we have to accept that. We trust our young bowlers who have consistently played well. Shaheen is one of the best bowlers and his aggression is unparalleled. He is the one who leads the bowling unit. So we will surely miss him."

India fans may not like remembering this game but the upside of it was that a plethora of cricket lovers in this country really got introduced to the likes of Shaheen Afridi and Haris Rauf. Considering the adulation that the likes of Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis and Shoaib Akhtar received in India, it is fair to say that the country does love the rockstar Pakistan fast bowlers and they hardly knew the current crop because the two teams had not played each other for over two years at that point. Just a short recap of that game then: India batted first, Afridi decimated the top order and Kohli's slow by T20 standards innings, 57 off 49 balls got them to 151/7. Indian cricket fans then also got a first hand experience of just how good Babar Azam as he scored an unbeaten 68 off 52 balls and were properly introduced to Mohammad Rizwan, who scored an unbeaten 79 off 55 balls. An unbeaten opening stand of 152 and Pakistan won by 10 wickets with 13 balls to spare. 

He had recently celebrated his 100th Test and now the former India captain is set to play in his 100th T20I. As Shaheen Afridi said in the video in which he met Kohli, it won't be just Indian fans who would be hoping that the latter finds form today, or later in this tournament. 

Rohit was a mix of his typical “bindaas” self while wearing the hat of responsible captain during the press conference yesterday. The latter was seen when he asked someone to tell the players outside to just hold it with the batting practice because he is not able to hear the reporter's questions. The Indian captain said that he is not surprised by the kind of camaraderie that is being seen between players and between players and opposition fans. Apart from that, he said that we will get to know India's opening combination only today. “Thoda to secret humko bhi rakhne do yaar (Let us keep a few secrets, man),” he said cheekily. 

Among the most dominant thread of conversation leading up to this match, and the Asia Cup, has been whether Kohli can go back to his pre-2019 form. The great Kapil Dev wants Kohli to feature in as many matches as possible for India as he believes that playing more will make it easier for him to return to form and play a role in bringing a lot more positive mindset. "I don't think so. We shouldn't even think about it," Kapil responded to a reporter's query of whether the Asia Cup 2022 is Kohli's last audition' before the T20 World Cup on Uncut. "If we use terms like last audition, or last chance, I don't think that is right. I just want to say to him that he should keep on playing matches. Sometimes, you shouldn't be taking too many breaks. He is a professional and he should not have that problem. I personally feel he should play as many matches and as many matches he can play. That's more important. When you start scoring runs, then the thought process changes."

Rohit Sharma(c), KL Rahul, Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant(w), Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Yuzvendra Chahal, Arshdeep Singh, Avesh Khan, Ravichandran Ashwin, Deepak Hooda, Dinesh Karthik, Ravi Bishnoi

Babar Azam(c), Mohammad Rizwan(w), Fakhar Zaman, Iftikhar Ahmed, Khushdil Shah, Asif Ali, Mohammad Hasnain, Shadab Khan, Usman Qadir, Haris Rauf, Naseem Shah, Shahnawaz Dahani, Mohammad Nawaz, Hasan Ali, Haider Ali

Right then, two of the biggest star names in the world of cricket. One is rising at a ridiculous rate in stature as a batsman while the other has done it all and is unfortunately trying to find his feet again. There was a time when people used to laugh at the prospect of Babar being compared to Kohli, simply because the Pakistani was just too young and the former Indian captain was on overdrive in every format of the game at all times in those years. Now, though, it isn't the case. Babar is proving to be quite an able captain and seems to be moulding a sense of stability in the Pakistani squad in every way. As a batter, he is doing some utterly extraordinary things in all formats. Moreover, it has to be said that Babar does play a strikingly similar, conservative game to Kohli. That is where the similarities end. Kohli mayn have let go of captaincy but remains a showman on the field, getting the crowd going and getting under the skin of opposition players, particularly in Test cricket. Babar seems to be a bit more of the silent kind. Two fascinating players and they surely will be remembered as batting pillars in Asian cricket in the years to come. 

It is easy to forget just how strong Sri Lanka were even until around 2015 and once you do remember it, you realise just how sad it is to find them in the state they are in at the moment. No disrespect to Afghanistan though, they were disciplined, with maybe just one dropped catch in the whole SL innings being an exception, and systematic in their 8-wicket decimation of Sri Lanka. They even put a masterclass of how to chase a low total in a T20 tournament where NRR is a huge factor, chasing down 106 with nearly 10 overs to spare. Regardless though, you wouldn't have expected the great Sri Lankan teams of the past to look helpless against a side placed eighth on the T20 rankings. Sri Lanka are also five-time champions in the Asia Cup,  only behind India in the all-time standings, and the only team apart from India to have defended the title in this competition. 

We can predict what is happening in the toss based on what happened yesterday between Sri Lanka and Afghanistan, which is that the team winning the toss will bowl first. Who will win the toss, well now that is down to sheer dumb luck, isn't it?

If the last post was rather dark and melancholic, this one shows the best of cricket. The buildup to these matches tend to be all about battle, ‘yudh’ and of course, ‘mauka mauka’ which is thankfully not being used any more. But this time, the buildup has been all about the two players from the opposite camps mingling, Rohit Sharma hugging Pakistan fans through a giant fence, Virat Kohli showing genuine concern when Shaheen Afridi told him about his injury, KL Rahul explaining just how much the Indian players look forward to India-Pakistan matches and so on. 

August 28, 2010, marked the start of a period that all Pakistan fans, and indeed anyone who truly loves cricket and sport, would like to forget. It was the day that news emerged that the Lord's Test between Pakistan and England was under investigation for fixing. It all ended with then-Pakistan captain Salman Butt and fast bowlers Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir being convicted of taking bribes from a bookmaker to deliberately bowl no-balls at certain points of the Test. Three potentially great careers were thrown astray and while Amir made his comeback, many years later, he never quite rose to the heights he should have. One has to also remember that greats like Kevin Pietersen and Hashim Amla still count Mohammad Asif as the most difficult bowler they ever faced in Test cricket and so, even that remains a huge could-have-been. The players have themselves to blame of course and all in all, it was a black period in the history of cricket. 

Pakistan lead the overall records in ODIs and Tests and India lead in tournament records. However, the Asia Cup will be played in the T20 format and it is important to note that in this format, it is India who lead the 6-2. In the Asia Cup itself, India lead 8-5, with the match being washed out once in 1997. In ODIs, Pakistan lead 73-55 while they lead India 12-9 in Test matches.

This is it! This is the one you have been waiting for. In fact this is the one everyone has been waiting for, including those organising the Asia Cup, which is why the buildup to this entire tournament has been almost like a buildup to an India-Pakistan series. It is also possibly the first of at least two India-Pakistan matches we will see in this tournament, considering the third team in this group are minnows Hong Kong. It will be global cricket news, and probably even more than that, if Hong Kong pips India or Pakistan to the Super Four stage. Anyhow, we had a pretty entertaining match to start off with yesterday, with Afghanistan utterly annihilating Sri Lanka in an efficient, systematic manner. Let's hope we will not just have individual performances to remember today and instead talk about a great match at the end of it all. It has been a while since we saw a close encounter between these two proud cricketing nations.