Web Desk (LTN NEWS): India’s KL Rahul said on Friday since the two countries are political rivals, they only play each other in multi-country events. Since 2007, the two countries haven’t played a Test against each other. Instead, they only play each other in shorter versions of the game and in multi-team tournaments outside of their home countries.
The Twenty20 tournament starts in the United Arab Emirates on Saturday, but fans can’t wait until Sunday for the big match between India and Pakistan.
“Everyone is very happy. As players, we always look forward to this India-Pakistan matchup because we don’t play each other anywhere else but in big tournaments,” Rahul told reporters.
“As we’ve seen, there is a long history, there has always been competition, and the games have always been very intense. As players, we’ve always wanted to play India-Pakistan, and this is a great chance for us all to test ourselves.”
Matches spark a lot of passion, but they have also eased military tensions between the two countries, which have fought four wars since getting their independence from Britain in 1947.
Recently, pictures and videos of India’s best player, Virat Kohli, and Pakistan’s captain, Babar Azam, meeting in Dubai during a practice session went viral.
Rahul said, “We can’t hide from the competition and emotions that come with being a player.”
“After the game or before, everything goes away. You become normal people, learn from each other, share your experiences, and it’s always been friendly.
A cricket match between India and Pakistan is always a big deal, and millions of people around the world are expected to watch it.
In their last match, Pakistan beat India by 10 wickets and brought the house down at the T20 World Cup match in Dubai.
“It hurts a little bit to lose any game in the World Cup,” said India’s vice-captain.
“Pakistan is a very strong team, and they beat us, so we get another chance to play them.”
There might be a record of how many times we have played and how many times each team has won, but that doesn’t mean anything because it will always start from zero.
No Shaheen
Rahul recently led India to a 3-0 win over Zimbabwe in a one-day international while the regular captain, Rohit Sharma, was out with an injury.
Last year, Pakistan’s best fast bowler, Shaheen Shah Afridi, got Rahul out for three runs with a fastball. Afridi also led his team in destroying India’s batting.
Shaheen, on the other hand, won’t be able to play in the Asia Cup because of a knee injury, which is good news for India.
“We’ve seen how Shaheen Afridi has done in the last two years. Rahul said, “He’s one of the best bowlers in the world.
“Right now, left-arm fast bowlers are the most dangerous in world cricket. They give batters the most trouble.”
So, if he had played, it would have been good for us to face off against a good bowler.
Rahul said that the team is “not worried” about Kohli’s long slump in form and that the star batsman will soon be back to his high standards of batting.
