New Delhi: In the much-awaited World Cup game between rivals India and Pakistan, Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma’s coaches are confident of victory for the Men in Blue.
Rajkumar Sharma, skipper Kohli’s coach, termed the clash highly anticipated and adviced team India to not panic.
“It is a highly-anticipated match as it is happening after a long time so people around the world are eagerly waiting for the clash,” Rajkumar told ANI.
India should play their natural game and should take the pressure on them as they are the better team than Pakistan, he said.
“India should play on their potential and should not panic and should hold their nerve as they have performed well in the last couple of years. People are highly excited as in both the country cricket is treated as a religion. Both the teams will try to win the game,” he explained.
Rohit’s coach Dinesh Lad suggested fans to treat the clash as a game, not war.
“Everybody sees India-Pakistan match as a war but it is just a cricket game. Winning and losing are part of sports, but every Indian wants India to defeat Pakistan in the World Cup. India can afford to lose against any other opponent in the World Cup but certainly not at the hands of Pakistan,” Lad told ANI.
“Pakistan has a couple of good bowlers and Indian batsmen have to play with patience as they are playing good in the World Cup. My advice to Rohit is that if he stays in the middle for 10-15 overs, it will be difficult to Pakistani bowlers to get rid of him,” he added.
Lad opined that Shikhar Dhawan’s absence will put more responsibility of Rohit Sharma.
“Loss of Dhawan will affect the opening, as he with Rohit has scored many hundred plus partnership for the team. Rohit has to play with the responsibility, although India has a very good batting line-up as they have Virat Kohli, MS Dhoni, Kedar Jadhav, KL Rahul and Dinesh Kartik. If India manages to score the 300 and above, it will be difficult for Pakistan to chase the target,” Lad said.
“I hope that this match will happen without the disturbance of rain as four matches of the tournament so far have been called off due to showers,” he added.
India will take on Pakistan later in the day at 3 pm in Manchester with a prediction of rain at the venue adding more suspense to the nail-biting encounter.
The Indian side has never lost to Pakistan in the ICC Cricket World Cup and will look to continue their winning streak today.
[source_without_link]ANI[/source_without_link]