Having easily defeated Pakistan in the Asia Cup Super 4 match on Sunday, Indian skipper Suryakumar Yadav on Sunday urged everyone to stop calling the contests between the two nations a meaningful “rivalry”.
India and Pakistan have faced each other 15 times in T20Is with the reigning world champions winning 12 of those encounters, and in the latest instance, the Indians won by six wickets.
When a senior Pakistani journalist asked if the gulf in standards between the two sides had grown too wide, Suryakumar responded with a smile: “Sir, my request is that we should now stop calling India vs Pakistan matches a rivalry.”
When the journalist clarified that he was referring to “standards, not rivalry,” the Indian skipper quipped, “Sir, rivalry and standard are all the same. Now what is a rivalry? If two teams have played 15 matches and it’s 8-7, that’s a rivalry. Here it’s 13-1 (12-3) or something. There is no contest,” he said before walking out of the media conference room with a grin.
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Abhishek, Shubman like fire and ice, says Suryakumar
The contrasting batting styles of inseparable best buddies Abhishek Sharma and Shubman Gill makes them a riveting "fire-and-ice" combination in India's T20 cricket set-up, feels Suryakumar. On Sunday, what looked like a tricky chase of 172 in the Asia Cup clash against Pakistan, became a cakewalk because the two best friends since the age of 10 put up an excellent 105-run opening stand.
Abhishek went on to score a scintillating 74 off 39 balls, his first fifty in the tournament, while Gill scored 47 off 28 balls. "It's like a fire-and-ice combination. They complement each other really well. And that's what I want to see. If someone is batting brilliantly, the other can take the back-seat and rotate the strike. It was required today to have a very good start. And they did," Suryakumar told mediapersons after India's win.
Having played together since Punjab U-12 days, they know each other's game well and switch gears and swap roles long before the opposition can figure what is unfolding. If one looks at their scoring pattern, Abhishek prefers the aerial route while Gill bisects the fielders on both sides with surgical precision. If Abhishek prefers heavy hitting, Gill's go-to method is silken grace.
Friendship off the field, Suryakumar feels, always helps in growing good on-field understanding. "It's really important to be very good friends off the field. When you open together, that bond matters. Sometimes you don't have to say anything in the middle," he said.
Didn't like the way they were coming at us: Abhishek
India opener Abhishek Sharma said he did not like the needless belligerence of Pakistan players in their Asia Cup Super 4 match on Sunday, and an ultra-aggressive batting approach was the best possible way to reply to an in-the-face opposition.
"Today it was very simple, the way they (Pakistan players) were coming at us for no reason, I didn't like it at all and this is the only way (his aggressive batting) I could give medicine to them," said Abhishek in the post-match presentation.
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