Sanjay Manjrekar's Gives This Huge Prediction Ahead Of India Vs Pakistan, Asia Cup 2023 Clash

With all eyes going to be on the likes of Babar Azam and Virat Kohli, former India cricketer turned pundit Sanjay Manjrekar is of the opinion that if the Indian top-order?gives them a fine start, it will be their's match to win.

The Asia Cup 2023 kickstarted with Pakistan's 238-run win over Nepal in the first game at Multan on Wednesday. India start their campaign against their arch-rivals in Pallekele on Saturday.

In recent conversations with Star Sports, Sanjay Manjrekar and former India cricketer Sanjay Bangar delved into India's batting strategies and the versatility of its players.

Manjrekar's emphasis was on the Test cricket skills that are required at the start of a 50-over game and commended the defensive prowess of India's top-order consisting of Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill and Virat Kohli.

He said "See, fortunately for India, number one, two, and three, when Virat bats at number three, they are three very good test batters. And you might talk about 50 overs being a one-day match and white-ball cricket and all that, but the start of a 50 overs game is not like a T20 match. I think there are some serious test cricket skills needed, and then Rohit Sharma got these five hundreds in the last World Cup."

"I remember him respecting the bowling in the first 10 overs. And these three guys – Gill, Rohit Sharma, and Virat – who have excellent credentials as defensive test batters, that is the game they will have to bring. If they do not lose early wickets, then it is just their game."

Meanwhile, Bangar spoke on KL Rahul's adaptive nature and how the team management are looking at various batting options in their training camp in Bengaluru.

He said, "KL Rahul is a very versatile player, especially when he is played as a batter. Sometimes he has opened the innings, sometimes he has batted at number 5. So, today we got to see a lot of things in this camp."

"Today, we also saw different pairs of players batting together, like as we have seen in yesterday's session - Subhman Gill and Rohit Sharma were batting in pairs. Today, KL and Rohit were batting together in pairs. Thus it means the team management might have this thought on their mind that whether KL Rahul can be utilized as an opening batsman. I do not think this is their first option, but obviously, they want to give their best chance for that, or they want to keep an option with them," he concluded.

Indian Squad: Rohit Sharma (captain), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul, Suryakumar Yadav, Tilak Varma, Ishan Kishan, Hardik Pandya (vice-captain), Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Shardul Thakur, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammad Shami, Mohammed Siraj, Kuldeep Yadav, Prasidh Krishna.