India-Pakistan Asia Cup opener: When cricket takes a back seat

There’s a rare condition called sleep inversion that affects certain individuals in which their waking patterns invert. They become temporarily nocturnal and sleep during the day. A similar pattern plays out when India play Pakistan at cricket.

With no bilateral ties, the neighbours only face each other in multi-team events such as the World Cup, the Champions Trophy and the Asia Cup. For the rest of the year, when India is playing endlessly, there is discussion, debate, and no end of cricket analysis. Who should bat where, who should be dropped, what the bowling combination should be and everything in-between.

When it’s time for India-Pakistan, the actual cricket takes a back seat in the lead-up to matches.


In India, cricket and Bollywood are everyday metaphors for bigger things. While Bollywood tells make-believe stories, sport is very real; therefore, India-Pakistan cricket has long been portrayed as war minus the shooting.

While this makes for a narrative that fits, the reality on the ground can sometimes be very different. In the neutral territory of the United Arab Emirates, where the Asia Cup is being played, India and Pakistan are in the same group and will play each other once, to begin with, and unless Hong Kong upsets either of these cricketing giants, they will meet again in the second round. There is the delicious possibility of the two teams meeting again in the final of the tournament.

The running joke is that the Asia Cup is actually a way for India and Pakistan to play a three-match series, while the other teams fight it out in the rest of the competition. This is a touch disrespectful to Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Afghanistan, who are not there just to make up the numbers, but it is clear what events are the cynosure of all eyes.

On the eve of the match, Rohit Sharma, the captain, tried to turn down the rhetoric dial. “You guys can do all the hyping you want,” he told the media. “Our job as players is to go out there and try to win the game. This is the same for players from both teams.”

A day earlier, KL Rahul, the vice-captain, took a slightly more realistic approach. “We can’t run away from the rivalry and emotion that comes through as a player. As youngsters, we’ve always looked forward to being in such clashes. When you get an opportunity to be in a clash like India-Pakistan, it becomes a game of bat and ball,” the Indian vice-captain said.

“You see the opposition as opposition and try to be at your best, focus on yourself more than the opposition. You’re not going to worry about outside talk, vibe and emotions. Yes, you tend to give 10% more effort, but we still remain players, we all love this game, all of us have had similar struggles. After the game or before, everything goes away. You become normal people, learn from each other, share experiences. It’s always been friendly.”

The game is a big one, obviously, especially given the stinging defeat Pakistan inflicted on India when the teams last met, also in Dubai, at the Twenty20 World Cup in October 2021. India had never lost to Pakistan in a World Cup before, and the manner of the loss was especially difficult for fans to take. Shaheen Shah Afridi chopped out the heart of the batting in an early spell, and India had no way back into the match.

But, while the focus is on the first encounter against Pakistan, the tournament as a whole is a critical one for India. In the lead-up to the T20 World Cup in Australia, India are fine-tuning their combinations. Rahul recently returned from a two-month injury loss, Virat Kohli continues his search to find form and different options have been tried at different spots. How do India find a place for Rishab Pant, the only left-hand batsman in the top six? How do India squeeze in Dinesh Karthik, brought back to international cricket as a successful T20 finisher? Can Deepak Hooda get a look in after strong recent batting performances, especially as he brings handy off spin bowling to the party?

The Indian cricket loving fraternity may be looking for revenge against Pakistan after the last loss, but, for the team management, the focus is looking forward, not just to this tournament, but the World Cup.

“We’ve tried out different things because only when you do that do you get answers to the questions in front of you,” Rohit explained. While he would not publicly say whether these questions had been answered already, much will reveal itself when the team list for India’s first match is announced.