Not an inch will be spared on the 22 yards or off it.
There is little or no chance of Indian players shaking hands with their Pakistan counterparts, a trend that started during the Asia Cup last year and has since extended to the continental showpiece and across sports such as volleyball, table tennis and hockey. World champions India, boasting a formidable line-up of T20 stars, will look to underline their supremacy on the cricket field when they take on Pakistan in the men’s gold-medal clash at the Asian Games on Saturday.
The match could be won or lost in the 16 overs likely to be bowled by the spinners from either side. It is not often that a team wins a gold medal by winning merely two matches, but persistent rainfall led to both India and Pakistan entering the final after comfortable wins in their respective semifinals. For interim head coach VVS Laxman and new T20 skipper Shreyas Iyer, a final against a second-string Pakistan side led by Sahibzada Farhan is akin to a banana peel. Sidestepping potential pitfalls is considered routine, and a slip-up would be viewed as a major embarrassment, especially after India sent a near full-strength squad to Japan that features pace-bowling great Jasprit Bumrah in a competition that is far from top-notch. Hence, Laxman and Iyer know that a gold medal would not earn them many plaudits, but anything less than gold would simply not be acceptable against a young Pakistan side that has some worthy PSL performers but distinctly lacks the star power of teams from a bygone era. In terms of batting units, India, with Abhishek, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, Sanju Samson, Shreyas Iyer, semifinal hero Ishan Kishan, Asia Cup final star Tilak Varma and Shivam Dube, hold the edge.
