Former Indian batting coach Abhishek Nayar has put India ahead of the highly controversial clash against Pakistan in the Asia Cup 2025. He believes India can only lose this match and the tournament if something unexpected goes wrong.
India began their title defence with a successful and overpowering win against the UAE, defeating them by 9 wickets in a low-scoring chase; meanwhile, Pakistan will face Oman to kickstart their campaign in Dubai. Both India and Pakistan will face each other on September 14th in the same venue.
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Abhishek Nayar: "India Are Champions, Not Contenders — This Tournament Is Theirs To Lose"
Abhishek Nayar, who appeared on Sony Sports, spoke highly of the team, calling them the champions, and it will be easy for them to win this tournament with the team they have was asked to share the strength of the Indian team
"I won't call them contenders; they are coming after becoming champions. The kind of squad they have and the way they are playing in this format, this tournament is for them to lose. If they don't win this tournament, there is something that's gone wrong," he responded.
Further, he was asked to share the strength of the Indian side, where his answer was the spinners, who already picked 6 wickets in the first match of the tournament.
The squad strength we have and the way our spinners bowled in the last match, I will always believe that if you are bowling well, winning the championship becomes easy. So it's India's tournament to lose," the former India coach added.
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Expected Tougher Conditions and Batting First as Practice Ahead of Pakistan Clash - Nayar
Meanwhile, Abhishek Nayar was expecting Suryakumar Yadav to opt to bat first, challenging themselves in the tougher conditions
"You were expecting India to win easily, but probably not this easily. There was a thought process about whether you could have bowled in tougher conditions, whether you could have batted first, just as an experiment, because you will be playing against Pakistan on the 14th," he said in the same discussion.
Nayar, believes that India is yet to get full hang of the conditions in Dubai which could be little challenging against Pakistan
So, as a precursor, would you have wanted to understand the conditions? However, Suryakumar Yadav and Gautam Gambhir had the thought process of playing to win and finishing the match as early as they could. So, a little too easy. A little challenge would have been good because I always believe preparation is only when it's hard," Nayar concluded.
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