Dominant! There’s no other way to describe Team India’s performance against the home team, UAE, in their opening match of the 2025 T20 Asia Cup. The game lasted just 17.4 overs. The Men in Blue chased down the target in just 4.3 overs, making it India’s fastest ever run chase in terms of balls played.
It was expected that India would boss the match, but this was a brutal takedown. One can’t forget that just 6 days ago, the UAE faced Pakistan and lost by just 31 runs. You’d expect them to slightly challenge India, but that didn’t happen at all.
In fact, one has to wonder how Pakistan will have a chance against India come September 14. If they managed to win by just 31 runs against the UAE, a team that just finished with a negative net run rate of 10.483, how exactly will they challenge the Men in Blue?
India ready for Pakistan challenge in Asia Cup
Team India is confident as well. Suryakumar Yadav was asked about how happy the UAE thrashing makes him and whether it sends a signal to Pakistan. “Everyone is excited for the game against Pakistan,” was all he told Sanjay Manjrekar in the post-match interview.
That sounds like a man who’s confident in himself and his team. And rightly so. India has been the best T20I team since the start of 2024. Under Suryakumar, India have lost 2 of their 15 matches. No team really stands a chance against the Men in Blue when they are anywhere near their best.
And we can expect Team India to bring the team as well. The 360-degree batter had hinted towards bringing aggression into the match just yesterday while sitting next to Pakistan’s captain, Salman Ali Agha.
“Aggression is always there; we take the field. Without aggression, I don’t think you can play the sport. I’m very excited to take the field from tomorrow,” Suryakumar had said at the captains’ meet.
Safe to say, fans will bring their popcorn for the India vs Pakistan match.
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