India’s focus also on transition

India are reigning World T20 champions but it will count for little at the Asia Cup because the core of the current squad is fundamentally different from the one that beat South Africa at Bridgetown last June.

- Somshuvra Laha

No Rohit Sharma, no Virat Kohli, no Rishabh Pant, no Ravindra Jadeja, and strategically India have decided to embrace a riskier approach where they rely on their batting depth to go hammer and tongs all the way.

It automatically puts greater impetus on the allrounders, making the Asia Cup an ideal tournament to go through every permutation and combination before the T20 World Cup at home next year.

It doesn’t in any way undermine the need to win the Asia Cup too, because there is simply no better habit than winning. And based on the rankings and pedigree, India look far ahead of the rest of the competition.

Suryakumar Yadav isn’t one to believe that though. “Kisne bola? (Who said that?),” he asked at the press conference on Tuesday. “I haven't heard of it. But you have played in this format and you know how your preparations are. If your preparations are good, then you will be very confident when you take the field. We are playing T20 as a team after a long time. But we were here three-four days back, had a good time together as a team, and we are really looking forward to this tournament.”