Suryakumar Yadav promotes an aggressive playing style ahead of the Asia Cup. However, arch-rivals Pakistan have different ideas as captain Salman Agha commented that he won’t promote aggresion, but let the players be themselves on the field.
The 2025 edition of the Asia Cup is slated to begin on September 9. India will play their first game against the UAE, before taking on Pakistan in a blockbuster clash at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium. Ahead of that, both India and Pakistan captains were asked about their take on playing an aggressive brand of cricket in the shortest format of the game.
Suryakumar Yadav noted that aggression is a must for his team to win games. Ever since he took over the charge, India have played an aggressive brand of cricket, and courtesy of that, won series against Australia, England and South Africa, among others. On the other hand, Pakistan made several changes to their squad since the T20 World Cup 2024. Senior players, including Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan, have been dropped, and the team has faced severe turmoil.ย
Pakistan have been very cautious in their approach, and captain Salman Agha has kept the door open to change that in the future. He noted that it is up to the players to show aggression, but it is not something that he asked anyone.
โAggression (is) always there on field and you can’t do without aggression if you want to win,” Suryakumar said during the tournament-eve captains’ press conference. Responding to the same question, Pakistan skipper Salman Ali Agha said, โIf someone wants to be aggressive, that is his call. From my side, I don’t give anyone any instructions.โ
Will India experiment in opening match?
India will challenge UAE in the opening game of the Asia Cup. Even though the Men in Blue will begin their campaign against a relatively weaker team, Suryakumar isnโt ready to experiment much and not think of things that is not broken.
โWhen you play a format, you need to know how good is your preparation. Why mend something that isn’t broken? If something has given us results why would we need to change that aspect separately,โ he said.