Asia Cup | Pakistan are favorites to lift Asia Cup, claims Sanjay Manjrekar

Former India batsman turned commentator, Sanjay Manjrekar, has termed Pakistan as the favorites to lift the coveted Asia Cup trophy ahead of the likes of India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Hong Kong. One of the reasons for this as per Manjrekar was that the Pakistan cricket team have played in the UAE for quite some time and consider it as their home turf.

“I think Pakistan start as favourites more than India, because they have been playing in those conditions (in the UAE) for a while now and it’s a team which is on the surge,” Manjrekar said. “India, of course, are resting Virat (Kohli), which takes a lot of strength away from the team. India are obviously one of the contenders,” Manjrekar told PTI.

The absence of Virat Kohli will obviously weaken the Indian team as Rohit Sharma is set to lead the side, which will also include veteran batsman - MS Dhoni. But Manjrekar opined that India should try and settle their middle-order woes. He insisted that Delhi Daredevils’ captain - Shreyas Iyer should be given a chance in the middle with a view to next year’s World Cup in England.

“At the moment, Ambati Rayadu, Dinesh Karthik and Manish Pandey are in the fray. I would like to see Iyer get a look-in before the World Cup,” he said.

“KL Rahul will get (to bat at) No. 3, because Virat is not there. We will have a look at him and he is also another middle-order option. India need a couple of reliable middle-order batsmen. Every match from now on would actually be about settling that (middle order) issue and most of the other areas are taken care of,” Manjrekar said.