Indo-Pak battle in Asia Cup will be an interesting one, asserts Gautam Gambhir

Arch-rivals India and Pakistan are going to take on each other in their second game of the ongoing Asia Cup tomorrow. This is after more than a year that the two neighbouring countries will battle it out in an international game after the Champions Trophy final in England in 2017. Gambhir has decided to prevent himself from getting any emotional attachments to the game, as it is just another match, which India needs to win. However, with the ban on bilateral matches between India and Pakistan, the focus will be on this game.

“It's another game of cricket. People do think it's a big thing, India playing Pakistan, because we don't play them often and there are a lot of emotions involved in it, but as sportsman you don't go into the game thinking it's Pakistan, so we have to beat them. You want to beat every opposition possible because it's a matter of pride for your country. I think it will be a good game, because Pakistan is a decent side,” Gambhir told TOI.

Currently, the cricket matches between India and Pakistan have been limited to international tournaments involving multiple nations. Since January 2013, bilateral matches between India and Pakistan has been prohibited due to political tensions between the Asian countries. From then, the two sides are seen in limited encounters, which are held Internationally.

Though Pakistan has agreed to resume the bilateral matches conducted between the two teams, India still has to approve such a decision. Gambhir feels that there should not be a particular ban on this issue, if both the nations refuse to conduct bilateral matches amongst them then they should refrain from playing against each other in International tournaments as well.

“If you want to ban someone from playing, you should ban them from playing from every form of cricket, whether it's Asia Cup or ICC events. You can't have conditional bans in sports. You can't say we won't play bilateral series but we can't do anything about ICC events and Asia Cup,” the former Indian opener said.

“If you want to play Pakistan in Asia Cup, why don't you play bilateral series as well? If you don't want to play Pakistan in bilateral series, then don't play them in Asia Cup and in ICC events either. That is a decision that the BCCI and the Government needs to take.”