India face potential ‘banana peel’ in Pakistan on tricky track

NAGOYA, Oct 2: World champions India, boasting a formidable line-up of T20 stars, will look to underline their supremacy on the cricket field when they take on Pakistan in the men's gold-medal clash at the Asian Games on Saturday.

Not an inch would be spared on 22 yards and off it, there is little or no chance of players shaking hands, having started the trend during Asia Cup last year, unlike their volleyball, TT or hockey counterparts who shook hands and hugged after end of their duels.

The standard of competition in cricket is pretty poor at the Games but the stakes of a nation that believes in using sport as a soft power, the significance of a gold medal, that too by beating Pakistan, is immense.

Not often does a team win a gold medal by winning merely two matches but the persistent rainfall led to both India and Pakistan entering the final with easy wins in their respective semi-finals.

For interim head coach VVS Laxman and new T20 skipper Shreyas Iyer a final against a second rung Pakistan side led by Sahibada Farhan is like a 'banana peel'.

Sidestepping is believed to be normal and a slip up would be considered a royal embarrassment, especially after India sent its first team to Japan and has features its pace bowling great Jasprit Bumrah in a competition which is far from top notch.

Hence Laxman and Iyer know that a gold medal wouldn't earn them a lot of plaudits but a silver medal wouldn't simply be acceptable against a young Pakistan team which has some worthy PSL performers but distinctly lacks star power like the cricket teams from the bygone era.

Yet the likes of Sahibzada, Maaz Sadaqat, Hasan Nawaz, Saim Ayub and Arafat Minhas could compete because of the nature of the track at the Korogi Park which has reduced the gulf between a world class team and also ran.

The underlying moisture and bright sunshine has led to uneven bounce and good amount of turn makes the role of Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Ravi Bishnoi important along with the legendary Burmah, whose skill-set has always been surface independent.

Even Abhishek Sharma will have a role to play if the turn on offer is more than significant.

At the other end, Pakistan will depend on their two wrist spinners Abrar Ahmed and Sufiyan Moqim along with wrist spinners Saim and Arafat.

The match will be won and lost in those 16 overs that spinners from either side will be bowling.

In terms of batting units, India with Abhishek, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, Sanju Samson, Shreyas Iyer, semi-final hero Ishan Kishan, Asia Cup final star Tilak Varma and Shivam Dube will hold fort.

In comparison, Pakistan's batting will largely be dependant on skipper Sahibzada, who had actually shot a advertorial documentary on how it felt to hit Bumrah for a six.

Then there is Saim, who is a highly rated youngster in Pakistan but has hardly done anything of note against India.

Hasan Nawaz and Abdul Samad are the players though on whom Pakistan might depend on. They who won it for Pakistan against a full-strength Bangladesh side that had Litton Das, Mustafizur Rahman, Shoriful Islam and Towhid Hridoy. To sum it up for India, there is not much to gain but a lot to lose.

Teams

India: Shreyas Iyer (captain), Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, Abhishek Sharma, Sanju Samson (wk), Shreyas Iyer, Ishan Kishan, Tilak Varma, Shivam Dube, Jasprit Bumrah, Washington Sundar, Axar Patel, Ravi Bishnoi, Vipraj Nigam, Yash Thakur, Arshdeep Singh.

Pakistan: Sahibzada Farhan (captain), Saim Ayub, Maaz Sadaqat, Usman Khan, Hasan Nawaz, Abdul Samad, Arafat Minhas, Mohammed Wasim, Ahmed Daniyal, Sufiyan Moqim, Abrar Ahmed, Akif Javed, Ali Raza, Saad Masood, Haider Ali.

Match Starts: 10:30 pm IST. (PTI)