Asia Cup 2025, IND vs PAK: India will face Pakistan in what promises to be an intense and tense Super 4 face-off of the Asia Cup on Sunday. The India vs Pakistan match will be played at the Dubai International Criceket Stadium from 8 p.m. IST onwards.
India ended league stage commitments in Asia Cup with a hat-trick of victories. They defeated a spirited Oman by 21 runs on Friday. Pakistan enter the Super Fours stage with two wins in three matches, with their only defeat coming against India last Sunday.
There have been numerous tense build-ups to Indo-Pak men’s cricket matches in the past but “surface tension” wasn’t as visible as it has been in this case after last Sunday when Suryakumar and his team’s decision to not shake hands with the rivals triggered a storm.
It is understood that the Indian team is likely to maintain the policy against the neighbours this Sunday too and handshakes might not be the order of the day even as Pakistani players and their supporters look at the game as a “Grudge Match”.
Axar Patel’s head injury while trying to take a catch against Oman would keep him and head coach Gautam Gambhir little worried but fielding coach T Dilip allayed fears by stating that he thought the all-rounder was doing fine.
Before the Pakistan game, Surya needed to check all the important players in the line-up and it is very clear that Harshit Rana and Arshdeep Singh didn’t look the part as little-known Pakistan-born Oman players — 43-year-old Aamir Kaleem and Hammad Mirza — thrashed the out-of-sync duo.
On Sunday though, one will get to see Jasprit Bumrah, whose mere presence lifts the spirit of his teammates in the playing eleven alongside Varun Chakravarthy. Both were rested in the inconsequential last game.
The pitches on offer at the Dubai International Stadium are helping the slow bowlers and onus will once again be on Kuldeep Yadav (eight wickets in the tournament so far), Axar and Varun to tilt the scales decisively in India’s favour.
For Pakistan, a team whose beauty lay in its unpredictability, the current side surprisingly lacks quality, especially in the batting department where none of the players can read the slow bowlers from the hand.
Unlike the last game against India when Pakistan played a third spinner in left-armer Sufiyan Muqeem, there is more chance of fast bowler Haris Rauf getting the nod on Sunday after his impressive show against the UAE in their last group league game.
