Asia Cup | Pakistan’s familiarity with conditions makes them tournament favourites, believes Sunil Gavaskar

Pakistan came up with one of the most-balanced sides in the tournament and the team has as many as six pacers to choose from - a luxury that many couldn’t afford. To go with that, the team has a rather flexible schedule lined up for them which might work well for them against India, who will not have the services of Virat Kohli. Gavaskar has also been of the opinion that this could factor well in favour of Pakistan, who had made UAE their home ground for the longest time. 

“The Asia Cup may have lost a bit of its shine in the eyes of the cricket lovers of the region, thanks to all the T20 leagues that have cropped up all over the world, but make no mistake, the players of all the participating countries want to win the magnificent trophy to have the bragging rights in the region,” Gavaskar wrote in his column for Times of India.

“Pakistan, the ICC Champions Trophy winners, start as favourites because not only have they got a well-balanced team, but they will be playing on their ‘home’ ground. The familiarity with the pitches and the weather conditions is always a plus and Pakistan will want to add the Asia Cup to their trophy cabinet. With their former charismatic captain as their country’s Prime Minister now, they will undoubtedly be inspired to give him the Asia Cup as a gift.”

When Abdul Rahman Bukhatir offered the kind of prize money that was unthinkable in the pre-Packer era, Sharjah became one of the hubs for international cricket and saw some of the finest one-day matches, and held Test matches too. After Sharjah made itself the hub of commercial cricket, other non-traditional centres like Singapore, Toronto, and Morocco had also hosted international matches but failed to match up with the intensity of the cricketing oasis in the middle of the desert and an India-Pakistan match was just the best.

Gavaskar reminisced that time and expressed his disappointment that the venue is not hosting any international matches in this continental showpiece.

“I was fortunate to lead a young Indian team to a win in the inaugural Asia Cup which was played in Sharjah, and it’s good to see that the tournament is back in the UAE, although strangely there won’t be any matches in Sharjah. The CBFS matches in Sharjah were the ones that lit the flame of cricket in the UAE, so it’s hard to understand why Sharjah does not have a single game.”