Asia Cup 2022: 3 Players of Pakistan who might produce a threat to team India

India and Babar Azam-led Pakistan are all set to lock horns with each other on the 28^th of August this month in the Asia Cup 2022. Both teams will be facing each other first time after the clash in the T20 World cup 2021 last year. In the previous encounter, the men in green outplayed the Indians and won the match by 10 wickets.

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But this time things will be quite a bit changed for the Indian team as Rohit Sharma has replaced Virat Kohli in the role of regular skipper. Whereas, the 33-year-old was the captain of the team in the last fixture against the arch-rivals. Everybody is eyeing on to see an interesting battle on the field between two Asian cricketing giants.

There are few players on the Pakistani side including skipper Babar Azam who can turn around the match anytime in the favor of Pakistan. So, in the same context, here we’ll have a look at three Pakistani players who might emerge as a potential threat to the men in blue.

Shaheen Shah Afridi

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Shaheen Afridi: (Image Source: Twitter)

One of the amazing sensations for Pakistan in the pace bowling from Khyber Agency, Shaheen Afridi has impressed everyone with his arrival in international cricket in a short span of time. He has a lethal capability of destroying any mighty batting order in the world of cricket on his day. The former legends of the game and experts have praised him for his excellent bowling skills and fiery pace.

Speaking of his performance against India, then he had completely rattled the strongest top order of India including the likes of former skipper Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, and KL Rahul. Afridi scalped the wickets of all these three veterans in his spell. The youngster is currently recovering from the injury and hopefully, he will be leading the Pakistani pace attack in the multi-team continental tournament.

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So, if he continues with his fiery form, he might produce a big threat to the Indian team in the powerplay overs. Not only in powerplay overs, but if skipper Babar Azam goes to use him in the slog overs, then the Khyber-born prodigy can also restrict India from posting a big total on the board.

Mohammad Rizwan

Mohammad Rizwan ( Image Credit: Twitter)

After proving his worth in domestic cricket for a number of years, the senior wicketkeeper-batter went on to establish himself in the national side of Pakistan three years back in 2019. He is the batter on whom Pakistan can confidently rely in any critical situation during the match. Furthermore, Rizwan is a bit more dangerous in the shortest format of the game.

The 30-year-old has astonishing numbers back in 2021 when he smashed 1326 runs in just 26 innings with an outstanding batting average of 73.66. He still holds the record for the highest runs in a calendar in the T20 internationals.

The KP-born batter also played a vital role alongside skipper Babar in the previous World Cup encounter against India. Rizwan stitched an unbeaten partnership of 152 runs with Babar to win the match for Pakistan by a massive margin of 10 wickets. Undoubtedly, he will be a guy India needs to deal with.

Babar Azam

Babar Azam (Image Credit : Twitter)

World’s number one batter in all the formats, everybody was doubting that the captaincy could have a negative influence on Babar’s batting. But the 27-year-old went on to shut the doubtful mouths of the critiques by achieving the world's number one position being a captain of the national side.

Last year, he was in the second spot in terms of scoring runs in the shortest format of the game just after his own teammate and opening partner Mohammad Rizwan. He is dominating the ranks with his sensational batting over the last two years. Notably, the nucleus of the Pakistani batting revolves around Babar and Rizwan as these two will open the batting for the team.

So, calculating the scenario, if Babar clicks on the day against India, then it would be a very tough task for Rohit & co to cross the line on the 28^th of August in this much-awaited clash of the Asia Cup.