Scott Styris : “India has the ability to squash everybody in the Asia Cup.”

Scott Styris, who used to play cricket for New Zealand, thinks that India has what it takes to beat every team in the upcoming Asia Cup, including archrivals Pakistan.

India will be the defending champions of the 20-over Asia Cup in 2022, having won the championship in the 50-over version in 2018 in the UAE and the T20I format in 2016 in Bangladesh.

Styris stated that given the potential and skill level of Indian players, he wants the Rohit Sharma-led team to impose themselves on other teams. He urged India to play the style and brand of cricket that is most comfortable for their players. Styris went on to say that India should not enter the six-team competition with a mediocre mindset, and that Pakistan has sorted things out a little better.

“As we all know, India has a very powerful T20 league as well. I believe it is the capacity to come together and play the style and brand of cricket that best suits your players. I think it was the big trick that India missed in the last T20 World Cup since it took them around two games,” said Scott Styris on Sports18.

Since last year’s T20 World Cup, where they were eliminated in the Super 10 stage, India’s luck has changed. With Rohit Sharma as the full-time captain and Rahul Dravid as the head coach, they have taken a more offensive approach with the bat. This has helped them win six of their seven bilateral T20I series, with the exception of the one against South Africa, which ended in a tie after the final game in Bengaluru was rained out in June.

“I want to see India do that in this Asia Cup. I want them to impose themselves on the other teams and l they’ve got the ability to do that. I think they’ve got the ability to squash everybody, including Pakistan, in this Asia Cup. But if they’re going to go into this with this middling attitude of how they want to play the game, then I don’t think it’s going to happen. I think that’s where Pakistan have figured things out a little bit more. So yes, they’ve got a great T20 competition, but so does India. I don’t think that’s going to be a defining moment or factor in this match,” added Styris.

India’s squad for Asia Cup: Rohit Sharma (Captain), KL Rahul (vice-captain), Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant (wicket-keeper), Suryakumar Yadav, Deepak Hooda, Dinesh Karthik (wicket-keeper), Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, R. Ashwin, Yuzvendra Chahal, Ravi Bishnoi, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Arshdeep Singh, Avesh Khan

Pakistan’s squad for Asia Cup: Babar Azam (Captain), Shadab Khan (Vice-Captain), Haris Rauf, Asif Ali, Fakhar Zaman, Haider Ali, Iftikhar Ahmed, Khushdil Shah, Mohammad Nawaz, Mohammad Rizwan (wicket-keeper), Mohammad Wasim Jnr, Naseem Shah, Shahnawaz Dahani, Usman Qadir.