India should not get intimidated by Pakistan says former Indian captain
Published on: Sep 15, 2018 12:00 am IST|Updated on: Sep 15, 2018 12:00 am IST
Former Indian captain Saurav Ganguly has said that Team India should not get intimidated by Pakistan and he believes that the nation has every chance to win the Asia Cup.
Ganguly was speaking with the media at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata when he opened up about the team’s chances of winning the Asia Cup. He said that India is a good team and he hoped that the team will do well in the Asia Cup despite playing without their skipper and their frontline batsman Virat Kohli.
India should not get intimidated by Pakistan
As the tournament is happening in UAE where Pakistan has played a lot of cricket, it is expected that Pakistan will be a bigger threat. Ganguly stated that Pakistan play well there but he also said that India shouldn’t get intimidated and in fact, he believes they should still do well.
Ganguly backed his words by pointing out that conditions there are more or less the same as that of the subcontinent and India are a good ODI team.
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Ganguly believes India can win without Kohli
The former India player admitted that India is a much stronger team with Virat Kohli but at the same time he pointed out that without him too the team is capable of winning the series.
The team management has decided to rest Kohli as he is featuring in international cricket continuously since the last few months with little or no break in between. Kohli is among the very few Indian players who represent the nation in all three formats.
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And in the recent Test series against England, Kohli suffered an injury to his back and hence the management decided to give the Indian captain some rest.
However, Ganguly believes that the team will perform well without Kohli in the tournament.
Battle lines are drawn. The stage is set.
Who will be crowed champions of Asia? #AsiaCup2018 pic.twitter.com/tyWcbnmR9T— AsianCricketCouncil (@ACCMedia1) September 9, 2018
Ganguly expects Rohit to do well
In the absence of Kohli, Rohit Sharma will be the captain. Hence Ganguly was asked about his opinion on Rohit’s leadership skills.
The former India captain responded by lauding Rohit. He reminded that Rohit has a very good record as a captain he signed off by saying that he expects Rohit to do well.