India will begin their Asia Cup 2018 campaign against the minnows Hong Kong on September 18 (Tuesday), which will be the dress rehearsal for the all-important clash against Pakistan.
Meanwhile, India have been clinical dismantlers of Associate opposition. Although they will be without their talismanic run-scorer Virat Kohli, there are fewer chances that Hong Kong will pull off a spectacular.
Rohit Sharma, who expressed that he is nervous on the eve of the first game, will lead India for the first time in any major tournament. However, he has led India to Nidahas Trophy earlier this year in Sri Lanka. India will look to find a solution to their middle-order worries with the World Cup in sight. India will have five batsmen – Kedar Jadhav, Dinesh Karthik, Manish Pandey, KL Rahul, and Ambati Rayudu – fighting for three spots.
For Hong Kong, who have only just lost their ODI status this year, it’s a massive occasion and an exceedingly rare opportunity to face a cricketing superpower. They will be keen to put a good show before going down from this edition of the Asia Cup.
Pitch & Conditions
The match will take place on the same deck that hosted the Hong Kong-Pakistan game on Sunday. Usman Khan, who picked three wickets in that match, said it was the slowest pitch in Dubai.
There was a grip for the spinners, and India might contemplate playing Axar Patel as their allrounder to complement their wrist spin pair of Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal.
With Kedar Jadhav’s low-slung off-spin also in the mix, Hong Kong could end up facing a lot of spins when they face India in the Asia Cup.
Predicted XI
India
India might choose to rest some of their first-choice players considering that they play Pakistan, the next day. That might mean a debut for the left-arm quick Khaleel Ahmed.
“Excited to see Khaleel play,” Rohit Sharma said in the pre-match press conference. “He’s got what it takes. Pace, swing. Personally looking forward to him doing well,” he added.
Probable XI: Rohit Sharma (c), Shikhar Dhawan, Ambati Rayudu, Manish Pandey, MS Dhoni (wk), 6 Kedar Jadhav, Axar Patel, 8 Shardul Thakur, 9 Kuldeep Yadav, 10 Khaleel Ahmed, 11 Yuzvendra Chahal
Hong Kong
They were brushed aside by Pakistan, but Hong Kong might not make too many changes; they played the same XI for the last three matches of their successful Qualifiers campaign.
Probable XI: Nizakat Khan, Anshuman Rath (c), Babar Hayat, Kinchit Shah, Christopher Carter, Ehsan Khan, Aizaz Khan, Scott McKechnie (wk), Tanwir Afzal, Ehsan Nawaz, Nadeem Ahmed.
Match Prediction
It will be a cakewalk for India, who will want to get back their confidence back ahead of the Pakistan encounter. India will be keen to test their bench strength against a weak Hong Kong.