- Joined
- Oct 2, 2004
- Runs
- 218,167
Four years ago, Nizakat Khan was a central figure as Hong Kong came within 26 runs of defeating India in an ODI. On Wednesday (August 31), he will captain a largely similar group of players (minus Anshuman Rath) at the same Dubai International Stadium in the hope that the shorter T20 format will help bridge the gap between two disparate teams and open up exciting possibilities.
Games against India don't come often - this is Hong Kong's third in 14 years - and there will always be something to gain from rubbing shoulders with the sport's elite, more so given that they won't be at the World Cup later this year. Hong Kong, who have been on the road for a while, bounced back well from their disappointments in Zimbabwe to come through the Asia Cup Qualifiers ahead of UAE and Kuwait. Central to their wins were the performances of the spin troika Ehsan Khan, Mohammad Ghazanfar and Yasim Murtaza, who between them took 16 wickets at an economy of 6.23.
Among them, legspinner Ghazanfar and left-arm spinner Murtaza might be best placed to exploit a little kink in India's batting that showed up once more in the win over Pakistan. India have scored at 5.35 per over across 21.4 overs against these two varieties of spin in their last three games in the UAE against the top-ranked sides. The decision to sit Rishabh Pant out meant India needed to float Ravindra Jadeja up the order to offset the match-up disadvantage despite his own unflattering record against spin - SR of 83.10 over 148 balls of spin faced since 2020.
The dexterity aspect of their top-order will be under scrutiny for India now that KL Rahul and Virat Kohli have returned to the XI. On paper, they may be too strong for their next opponents, but they will have an eye on the finer points of form and fatigue even while they are flexing the proverbial muscles.
When: India vs Hong Kong, Asia Cup Group A 4th Match, 18:00 Local, 14:00 GMT
Where: Dubai International Stadium
What to expect: Another sultry evening with the wind barely offering any respite in terms of comfort or swing and drift. It is still early days in the tournament and as evidenced, the fast bowlers will have assistance off the surface.
Head to head: India 2-0 HK. Both their previous two contests have been played in Asia Cups (2008, 2018) in the ODI format. Wednesday will mark their first meeting in a T20I
Team Watch:
India
Injury/Unavailability: No absentees to report from the ones picked in the squad
Tactics & Matchups: Hong Kong will play two left-handers in their top-four (Yasim Murtaza and Kinchit Shah) and India may consider playing one of R Ashwin or Ravi Bishnoi, both of whom fare well against southpaws.
Probable XI: Rohit Sharma (c), KL Rahul, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Dinesh Karthik/Rishabh Pant (wk), Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Avesh Khan/R. Ashwin, Yuzvendra Chahal, Arshdeep Singh
Hong Kong
Injury/Unavailability: Hong Kong's players have been playing through niggles during this arduous run of games but haven't reported any player out of Wednesday's game as yet.
Tactics & Matchups:
Away spin against India's top-four is a well known match-up option and Ghazanfar and Murtaza will hope to translate their good recent form into a memorable outing.
Probable XI: Nizakat Khan (c), Yasim Murtaza, Babar Hayat, Kinchit Shah, Aizaz Khan, Scott McKechnie (wk), Zeeshan Ali, Haroon Arshad, Ehsan Khan, Mohammad Ghazanfar, Ayush Shukla
Did you know?
- Jadeja has bowled his full quota of four overs only twice in five games since June. Hardik Pandya has bowled more in three of the four games involving both him and Jadeja.
- Nizakat Khan has been in good recent form scoring three of his five 50+ scores in T20Is in 2022: 60 (55) vs Netherlands, 81 (55) vs Singapore and 50 (43) vs Kuwait.
What they said:
"It's been a very long tour for us. Three months on the road, but credit goes to our boys. Players have been playing on leg, there have been injuries as well. But they have held on really well" - Nizakat Khan
"When he [Hardik] was not part of the team, he figured out what he needed to do to his body and his fitness regime, and now he is clocking 140+ easily. His batting quality we all know and it's been brilliant since his comeback. He is a lot calmer now and more confident about what he wants to do, whether it's with the bat or with the ball." - Rohit Sharma
Squads:
India Squad: Rohit Sharma(c), KL Rahul, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja, Hardik Pandya, Dinesh Karthik(w), Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Avesh Khan, Yuzvendra Chahal, Arshdeep Singh, Deepak Hooda, Rishabh Pant, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravi Bishnoi
Hong Kong Squad: Nizakat Khan(c), Yasim Murtaza, Babar Hayat, Kinchit Shah, Aizaz Khan, Scott McKechnie(w), Zeeshan Ali, Haroon Arshad, Ehsan Khan, Mohammad Ghazanfar, Ayush Shukla, Ateeq Iqbal, Mohammad Waheed, Wajid Shah, Aftab Hussain, Dhananjay Rao, Ahan Trivedi
==================================================
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Games against India don't come often - this is Hong Kong's third in 14 years - and there will always be something to gain from rubbing shoulders with the sport's elite, more so given that they won't be at the World Cup later this year. Hong Kong, who have been on the road for a while, bounced back well from their disappointments in Zimbabwe to come through the Asia Cup Qualifiers ahead of UAE and Kuwait. Central to their wins were the performances of the spin troika Ehsan Khan, Mohammad Ghazanfar and Yasim Murtaza, who between them took 16 wickets at an economy of 6.23.
Among them, legspinner Ghazanfar and left-arm spinner Murtaza might be best placed to exploit a little kink in India's batting that showed up once more in the win over Pakistan. India have scored at 5.35 per over across 21.4 overs against these two varieties of spin in their last three games in the UAE against the top-ranked sides. The decision to sit Rishabh Pant out meant India needed to float Ravindra Jadeja up the order to offset the match-up disadvantage despite his own unflattering record against spin - SR of 83.10 over 148 balls of spin faced since 2020.
The dexterity aspect of their top-order will be under scrutiny for India now that KL Rahul and Virat Kohli have returned to the XI. On paper, they may be too strong for their next opponents, but they will have an eye on the finer points of form and fatigue even while they are flexing the proverbial muscles.
When: India vs Hong Kong, Asia Cup Group A 4th Match, 18:00 Local, 14:00 GMT
Where: Dubai International Stadium
What to expect: Another sultry evening with the wind barely offering any respite in terms of comfort or swing and drift. It is still early days in the tournament and as evidenced, the fast bowlers will have assistance off the surface.
Head to head: India 2-0 HK. Both their previous two contests have been played in Asia Cups (2008, 2018) in the ODI format. Wednesday will mark their first meeting in a T20I
Team Watch:
India
Injury/Unavailability: No absentees to report from the ones picked in the squad
Tactics & Matchups: Hong Kong will play two left-handers in their top-four (Yasim Murtaza and Kinchit Shah) and India may consider playing one of R Ashwin or Ravi Bishnoi, both of whom fare well against southpaws.
Probable XI: Rohit Sharma (c), KL Rahul, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Dinesh Karthik/Rishabh Pant (wk), Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Avesh Khan/R. Ashwin, Yuzvendra Chahal, Arshdeep Singh
Hong Kong
Injury/Unavailability: Hong Kong's players have been playing through niggles during this arduous run of games but haven't reported any player out of Wednesday's game as yet.
Tactics & Matchups:
Away spin against India's top-four is a well known match-up option and Ghazanfar and Murtaza will hope to translate their good recent form into a memorable outing.
Probable XI: Nizakat Khan (c), Yasim Murtaza, Babar Hayat, Kinchit Shah, Aizaz Khan, Scott McKechnie (wk), Zeeshan Ali, Haroon Arshad, Ehsan Khan, Mohammad Ghazanfar, Ayush Shukla
Did you know?
- Jadeja has bowled his full quota of four overs only twice in five games since June. Hardik Pandya has bowled more in three of the four games involving both him and Jadeja.
- Nizakat Khan has been in good recent form scoring three of his five 50+ scores in T20Is in 2022: 60 (55) vs Netherlands, 81 (55) vs Singapore and 50 (43) vs Kuwait.
What they said:
"It's been a very long tour for us. Three months on the road, but credit goes to our boys. Players have been playing on leg, there have been injuries as well. But they have held on really well" - Nizakat Khan
"When he [Hardik] was not part of the team, he figured out what he needed to do to his body and his fitness regime, and now he is clocking 140+ easily. His batting quality we all know and it's been brilliant since his comeback. He is a lot calmer now and more confident about what he wants to do, whether it's with the bat or with the ball." - Rohit Sharma
Squads:
India Squad: Rohit Sharma(c), KL Rahul, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja, Hardik Pandya, Dinesh Karthik(w), Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Avesh Khan, Yuzvendra Chahal, Arshdeep Singh, Deepak Hooda, Rishabh Pant, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravi Bishnoi
Hong Kong Squad: Nizakat Khan(c), Yasim Murtaza, Babar Hayat, Kinchit Shah, Aizaz Khan, Scott McKechnie(w), Zeeshan Ali, Haroon Arshad, Ehsan Khan, Mohammad Ghazanfar, Ayush Shukla, Ateeq Iqbal, Mohammad Waheed, Wajid Shah, Aftab Hussain, Dhananjay Rao, Ahan Trivedi
==================================================
All posters please take note of the following guidelines for match threads on PakPassion:
1. No personal insults at other posters, players, officials, coaching staffs etc.
2. No making fun of player's, official's, coaching staff's names.
3. Do not add any references to media, their social media or post any pictures or screenshots from other sports websites.
4. Stick to commenting on this match. There is no need to bring other countries into the match discussion as there are plenty of other threads where those discussions can be added.
5. Report abuse. If you see any post which is inappropriate, report it. Do not respond to it
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