Asia Cup preview: India batters will be eyeing return to form against Hong Kong

KL Rahul couldnt have wished for an easier opposition to get his rhythm back as a buoyant India get ready to steamroll minnows Hong Kong in their second and final group league game of the Asia Cup here on WednesdayThe Group A match wont be more than a glorified net session for Rohit Sharmas men against a team mostly comprising Pakistani and Indian expats who otherwise are not good enough to play firstclass cricket in either of the two nationsAfter a hard earned victory over Pakistan in a last over thriller scripted by Hardik Pandya the focus against Hong Kong will be on batters and their adequate game timeRahul whose first T20I in 2022 was against Pakistan the other night would want to come out all guns blazing and may take this opportunity to try an alternate batting approach at the onset compared to what has been his style at the IPLIn T20Is teams are going for impact performance and often a 20 ball 45 is of greater value than a 90 not out of 65 ballsQuality of an innings and its significance in the larger context of the game is more important at this stage as India get ready for the T2O World Cup to be hosted by Australia from October 16 to November 13Obviously the quality of Hong Kong bowling to put it politely wont match up to Pakistan but there is always a fear as one doesnt exactly know what to expect from an unknown entityHence it is important that Rahul uses this opportunity to the fullest to gain his confidence before the start of the Super Fours and business end of the tournamentSkipper Rohit has made it clear that experimentation will continue and hence one shouldnt be surprised if there is another batting order that could be tried out on WednesdayFor Virat Kohli the Hong Kong match will be all about another quality hitting time in the middle against an attack that is sure to feel intimidated by his sheer presence in the middleAlso Read Pakistan pacer Shaheen Afridi to undergo rehab in London after knee injuryEven Rohit after a subdued game against Pakistan would like to deposit a few into the standsIt would be interesting to see if Ravindra Jadeja is sent at No 4 position against Hong Kong or whether Rishabh Pant is tried in place of Dinesh Karthik just to give him some game timeWhile Indias toporder went back to its old safety first approach against Pakistan it had a lot to do with the quality of attack on display even without Shaheen Shah AfridiPerhaps one could safely judge whether Indias allout attacking display in powerplay can work or not only when they play against attacks which have more depth than England West Indies or Sri LankaSo the real judge of the batting orders attacking mindset will only be proved against sides like Australia Pakistan South Africa and New ZealandGames like Hong Kong does help in beefing up stats and no player would like to sit outRavichandran Ashwin and Ravi Bishnoi could also get a look in letting Yuzvendra Chahal and Jadeja cool their heels a bitTeams fromIndia Rohit Sharma c KL Rahul Virat Kohli Suryakumar Yadav Rishabh Pant Deepak Hooda Dinesh Karthik Hardik Pandya Ravindra Jadeja R Ashwin Yuzvendra Chahal Ravi Bishnoi Bhuvneshwar Kumar Arshdeep Singh Avesh KhanHong Kong Nizakat Khan c Kinchit Shah Aftab Hussain Aizaz Khan Ateeq Iqbal Babar Hayat Dhananjay Rao Ehsan Khan Haroon Arshad Scott McKechnie Ghazanfar Mohammad Mohammad Waheed Ayush Shukla Ahan Trivedi Wajid Shah Yasim Murtaza Zeeshan AliMatch start at 730 pm ISTThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever