Indian head coach Rahul Dravid wants to focus on one game at a time rather than looking at facing arch-rival Pakistan potentially in three games in Asia Cup 2023. The schedule for the continental event was finally announced on Wednesday evening, where India will take on Pakistan on September 2 at Kandy.
The six-nation tournament being held in Pakistan and Sri Lanka is based on the hybrid concept, where both countries will co-host the event as four matches will be played in Pakistan, and the remaining nine matches will be played in Sri Lanka.
In the video posted by BCCI.tv, Rahul Dravid said that he wants to focus and win the first two games to qualify for the super four stages of the continental event and reckons that it would be great if they get the opportunity to face Pakistan three times in this edition of the Asia Cup if both nations managed to reach the final of the mega event in Sri Lanka.
“The schedule is out. You have to qualify for the Super Fours to play Pakistan three times. One step at a time, I don’t believe in counting my chickens too much,”
“I know we are going to play Pakistan and Nepal in the first two games, so we need to focus on that. We need to win those games and see where the tournament goes. If we get the opportunity to play them three times, it’s fantastic. That would mean we reach the final of the tournament and hopefully, Pakistan do too,” Rahul Dravid said.
As of now, all the bilateral relations between India and Pakistan are suspended due to political and security reasons. The arch-rivals do not play any bilateral series against each other and only take on each other during ICC events or Asia Cup.
We Certainly Want To Play Right Up To The Final And Win It – Rahul Dravid
Rahul Dravid believes that it would be a great contest between India and Pakistan and said that they want to win the Asia Cup 2023 and asserted that they want to take one step at a time to get to the final of the tournament in Sri Lanka.
