Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], September 14 (ANI): India T20I captain Suryakumar Yadav’s childhood coach Ashok Aswalkar believes his former pupil will remain unperturbed despite the pressure of leading the nation into a high-profile fixture against arch-rival Pakistan at the Asia Cup.
Suryakumar was passed the captaincy baton after Rohit Sharma lifted the T20 World Cup title in Barbados last year and bid adieu to the shortest format of cricket. Under his reign, India has continued to soar to new heights, notching 13 victories out of 16 fixtures while intensifying their preparations for defending their crown on home turf at next year’s World Cup.
“Instead of the form of both teams, I will talk about my team. Our team is playing better in the T20 format. And all the players are young. So they know how to play. It doesn’t matter who we play against. We have to play our game and express ourselves,” Aswalkar told ANI.
“There won’t be any pressure because he has almost led the match. So it is an easy thing for him. We have to play according to the match we played in the beginning. We don’t have to take a big burden,” he added.
Before opening their campaign against the UAE, India’s last T20I appearance was on home turf against England in February. Despite the lack of game time, India hardly broke a sweat with its spinners casting a spell to leave the misfiring UAE batters bamboozled.
Kuldeep Yadav’s wrist spin and Shivam Dube’s scrambled seam forced the UAE to collapse on 57, the second-lowest total in the tournament’s history. In reply, Abhishek Sharma and Shubman Gill’s blitz, topped up by Suryakumar’s finishing touches, propelled India to a landslide 9-wicket victory in a mere 4.3 overs.
While many felt India was devoid of the opportunity to get some valuable experience, Aswalkar doesn’t see it as a massive issue and said, “It won’t make a difference. We have come to play T20 after a long time. A lot of time has passed, even though it was a match against the UAE. But we came to the field. We have seen the atmosphere of the field. So that atmosphere will help us a little.”
India squad for Asia Cup: Suryakumar Yadav (C), Shubman Gill, Abhishek Sharma, Tilak Varma, Hardik Pandya, Shivam Dube, Jitesh Sharma, Axar Patel, Jasprit Bumrah, Varun Chakaravarthy, Arshdeep Singh, Kuldeep Yadav, Sanju Samson, Harshit Rana, Rinku Singh. (ANI)
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