Asia Cup 2018: 3 things India should be wary of in the final
The Rohit Sharma-led Indian team reached the finals of the 2018 Asia Cup in a convincing manner, despite the tie against Afghanistan and a tight encounter against Hong Kong.
In their journey to the final of the tournament, India have crushed Pakistan twice and defeated the Bangladeshi Tigers once. Their road to the final has been aided by some spectacular individual performances, with the likes of Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma and Jasprit Bumrah taking most of the plaudits.
Despite the relatively easy manner of reaching the finals, India has few issues to be concerned of before the game on September, 28. In this article, we take a look at three things Team India should be wary of before stepping onto the field:
#3 Recent record in the finals
Since the 2014 Champions Trophy final, India's record in the finals or semi-finals of major tournaments has not been that great. Recently in the 2017 Champions Trophy Final, India suffered a heavy defeat against arch-rivals Pakistan by 180 runs.
In that Champions Trophy India had an easy run till the final, just like they have had in this Asia Cup 2018. They had two tight matches against rookie teams like Hong Kong and Afghanistan, which are enough to ring the bells, despite easy victories against Bangladesh and Pakistan.
Before that India lost in the finals of 2014 T20 World Cup and the semi-finals of both the 2015 ODI World Cup and the 2016 T20 World Cup. In all those tournaments, India had breezed through to the semis and finals, before eventually coming up short in those big games.
So India must be alert of that.