Asia Cup 2018, India vs Pakistan: Rohit, Bumrah and Dhoni will face a lot of scrutiny in the high-octane clash
India vs Pakistan - a match that brings two nations to a standstill. Literally.
Arguably, this is the biggest competition of all time and across all sports. Decades have gone by, and yet the hype for India vs Pakistan remains the same - whether it is the Asia Cup, World Cup or Champions Trophy.
The excitement is even more because of how rarely India vs Pakistan matches happen; the last time these two teams played was more than a year ago, in the famous Champions Trophy final. Cricket fans are in for a treat with potentially three India vs Pakistan matches within a week.
Both India and Pakistan head into the clash tomorrow on the back of a win against Hong Kong. India, however, would be concerned because it was Hong Kong who had the moral victory. India barely won that game; Hong Kong were two good overs away from snatching victory away from India. And that would have been some upset.
That said, India have a stronger side than Pakistan on paper, so the match is expected to be pretty even. Here are some of the key clashes ahead of the big match.
1) Rohit Sharma vs Mohammad Amir
Rohit Sharma's comment labeling Mohammad Amir a "normal bowler" has certainly come back to bite him. Since Amir's return to cricket, Rohit has faced him four times and got out to him thrice - at the Asia Cup 2016, T20 World Cup 2016 and finally the 2017 Champions Trophy final.
There has been a lot of talk around the cricketing world that Rohit has a weakness against left arm quicks with the ball coming back in. Will Rohit finally have the better of Amir and put his struggles against left-arm pacers to bed?
2) Jasprit Bumrah vs Fakhar Zaman
This is one battle both sets of fans would be looking forward to seeing. No Indian fan would forget that no-ball in the Champions Trophy final; it is still traumatizing whenever Bumrah bowls a no ball. This comes from a man who was at the stadium celebrating Zaman's wicket, only to see Bumrah overstep on the big screen.
3) MS Dhoni vs spin
The great MS Dhoni, who is one of the finest white ball players of all time, has been struggling of late - especially against spin. One of Dhoni's greatest traits throughout these years has been his ability to rotate the strike with his quick running. Sunil Gavaskar's motto "convert the singles into doubles" suits Dhoni perfectly because he does that with ease.
Or he did at least. Dhoni got out for a 3-ball duck vs Hong King, falling to the spinner Ehsan Khan. This was the 9th duck of his career.
Shadab Khan, Haris Sohail and Shoaib Malik will have a huge role to play against Dhoni as they try to slow him down in the middle.
In the last 3 years, Dhoni's decline in playing spin is starkly visible; his strike rate has been decreasing every year against spin.
Dhoni's strike rate vs spinners
2015-2016: 68.8
2017: 64.7
2018: 59.4
India's middle order isn't close to being ready for the 2019 World Cup next year, and a lot depends on Dhoni and how he can go about rotating the strike - especially against spin. Throughout his career, his success in setting up an innings has begun with him rotating the strike with ease, and now that is under scrutiny.
Needless to say, this is a huge concern for Inda. Dhoni needs to find a way to combat this weakness in his current game, and there is no better place to do that than on a as big a stage as an Indo-Pak clash.
Pakistan are likely to come out against India with an all-out left-arm pace attack. With no Virat Kohli in the Indian side and the instability in the Indian middle order, Pakistan would fancy their chances.
India vs Pakistan has created plenty of memorable matches in the past. Let's hope tomorrow is another one of those.