Must break Babar Azam-Mohammad Rizwan opening stand, Styris advises India

Babar Azam and Mohd Rizwan during Pakistan’s 10-wicket win over India last year; (right) Scott Styris

Former New Zealand cricketer Scott Styris is of the opinion that breaking Pakistan’s opening partnership and forcing their middle-order to do which they won’t be wishing to do will be the key for India to upstage their arch-rivals in the marquee clash on August 28.

Sunday’s clash at Dubai will see the resumption of greatest rivalry in the world of cricket when India and Pakistan open their Asia Cup Group ‘A’ campaign. This will also be the first meeting between these two teams after facing off in the T20 World Cup last year in the UAE, where Pakistan secured a resounding 10-wicket victory over India.

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“So if you were to just look at the side, they rely so heavily on this man here, Mohammad Rizwan along with Babar Azam, because if they get them off to a start, there’s a lot of power hitting to come. So therefore, they will look to provide the base and then Fakhar Zaman of this world with all that power that left-handed sort of variety as well.

“I think coming in and maybe looking to attack the spinners in particular, I think could work in Pakistan’s favour. So India’s key is to break that opening partnership, make those middle-order players for Pakistan do what they don’t want to do and that’s actually at the back rather than walk out there and hit,” said Styris told Sports18.

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