India and Pakistan both head into Sunday’s Asia Cup 2025 Group A showdown on the back of overwhelming wins, but the sheer contrast in quality between the sides will mean that the Men in Blue’s second-string team can also annihilate Salman Agha’s team, felt former India bowler Atul Wassan.
Insisting that India have barely felt the absence of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli in the short-format transition since the end of the previous World Cup in June 2024, Wassan said India’s problem of plenty is a major conundrum for the national selectors.
‘The King is dead…’
“India’s B team will also beat this Pakistan team because things have changed. When we played in the 90s, they were a very good side. Now the boot is on the other foot. I will not miss Rohit (Sharma) and Virat (Kohli) because then I will start missing Sunil Gavaskar and Kapil Dev also.”
The king is dead, long live the king. Things move, new superstars come in, and this embarrassment of riches, and I feel sorry for the selectors because to keep everyone in the mix because who’s to drop and who’s to pick,” said Wassan on CNN-News18.
In the post Kohli-Rohit era, India have played 21 matches, losing only three games.
No transition for India
Former India leg-spinner Piyush Chawla echoed Wassan’s thoughts, affirming that India’s white-ball pool has maintained staggeringly high standards, even blurring the feeling of a transition.
“If you look at the current Indian team, the amount of games that they have won post the Rohit and Kohli era in T20 cricket, they are doing a wonderful job. Somebody like Arshdeep is not getting a chance in the playing XI, being in the top five of world T20 bowlers. I think this team looks really set, and you always miss these kinds of players. But this is the part and parcel of the game. One has to come and then go. We can’t even say that this team is going through a transition period, because if you see all the players in this squad, they have so much experience, and when you play a tournament like the IPL, when the standards are so high,” Chawla aid.
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“So you know how to handle the pressure. How to hold your nerves in those difficult situations. They have been through all of that, no matter when you are playing for your franchise and when you are playing for your country, because you learn from playing domestic cricket, IPL. You learn all these things from those games. So when it comes to the big stage, they know how to handle those situations. There is enough experience in this dressing room to handle these kinds of situations,” Chawla said.
India will meet Pakistan for the first time since their group-stage clash in the 2024 T20 World Cup on Sunday in Dubai.
