India prepare to take on Hong Kong in their second and final Asia Cup league group game on Wednesday

KL Rahul couldn’t have asked for easier opposition to get his rhythm back as rampant India prepare to take on Hong Kong in their second and final Asia Cup league group game on Wednesday. The Group A match will be little more than a celebration of a clean sheet for Rohit Sharma’s men against a team made up mostly of Pakistani and Indian expats who are otherwise not good enough to play first-class cricket in either country.
After a hard-earned win over Pakistan in the latest thriller scripted by Hardik Pandya, the focus will be on the batting and their adequate playing time against Hong Kong. Rahul, whose first T20I of 2022 was last night against Pakistan, would be looking to come out with all guns blazing and may take this opportunity to try an alternative batting approach early compared to his style in the IPL. In T20Is, teams are looking for an impact performance and often a 20-ball 45 is worth more than a 90 not out from 65 balls.
The quality of the innings and its significance in the larger context of the game is more important at this stage as India prepares for the T2O World Cup, which will be hosted by Australia from October 16 to November 13. Obviously, the quality of Hong Kong’s bowling, to be fair, is no match for Pakistan’s, but there is always that fear because one doesn’t know exactly what to expect from an unknown entity. Hence, it is important that Rahul makes the most of this opportunity to gain confidence before the start of the Super Fours and the business end of the tournament.
Captain Rohit has made it clear that experimentation will continue, so it should come as no surprise that another batting order could be tried out on Wednesday. For Virat Kohli, the Hong Kong match will be about another quality batting in the middle against an attack that will surely feel intimidated by his mere presence in the middle. Even Rohit would love to put a couple on the stand after a subdued match against Pakistan. It would be interesting to see if Ravindra Jadeja is sent in at No.4 against Hong Kong or if Rishabh Pant is tried in place of Dinesh Karthik just to give him some game time.
While India’s top order reverted to its old safety-first approach against Pakistan, it had a lot to do with the quality of the attack that was produced even without Shaheen Shah Afridi. Perhaps it is only when playing against attacks that have more depth than England, West Indies or Sri Lanka that one can confidently judge whether or not India’s all-out attack display in the powerplay can work. So the true judge of the attacking mindset of the batting order will only prove itself against sides like Australia, Pakistan, South Africa and New Zealand. Games like Hong Kong help improve stats and no player would want to sit.
Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravi Bishnoi could also look in and let Yuzvend Chahal and Jadeja cool down a bit.
Teams (from): India: Rohit Sharma (c), KL Rahul, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant, Deepak Hooda, Dinesh Karthik, Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, R Ashwin, Yuzvendra Chahal, Ravi Bishnoi, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Arshdeep Khanh.
Hong Kong: Nizakat Khan (c), Kinchit Shah, Aftab Hussain, Aizaz Khan, Ateeq Iqbal, Babar Hayat, Dhananjay Rao, Ehsan Khan, Haroon Arshad, Scott McKechnie, Ghazanfar Mohammad, Mohammad Waheed, Ayush Trishchikla, A , Yasim Murtaza, Zeeshan Ali. The match starts at 19:30 IST.
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