Twitter Reactions Asia Cup 2023

'Toh fir toh aapke hisaab se Nepal Asia Cup 2023 jeet sakti hai' - Fans react to Rohit Sharma's 'I don't believe in tournament favourites' statement

Ajit Agarkar along with Rohit Sharma announced the 18-member squad for the Asia Cup 2023 in the press conference on Monday, August 21.

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Rohit Sharma

Rohit Sharma (Source: Twitter)

The 16th edition of the Asia Cup is scheduled to kick start on August 30. The first match of the tournament is set to be played between Pakistan and Nepal in Multan, Pakistan. The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) recently announced a 15-member squad for the 2023 edition of the Asia Cup. The last edition of the Asia Cup was won by Sri Lanka, which was played in the United Arab Emirates.

The Chairman of Selectors, Ajit Agarkar along with the Men in Blue skipper, Rohit Sharma announced the 18-member squad for the Asia Cup 2023 in the press conference on Monday, August 21. The 36-year-old asserted that he doesn't believe in tournament favourites. "I don't believe in tournament favourites - we have to play good cricket & win games - there are no such things like favourite or underdogs," Rohit was quoted as saying in the press conference.

I batted from top to bottom: Rohit Sharma

The opener went on to say that the top three batters of the team are confirmed with the number 4 and number 5 being the positions where some flexibility is possible. In the end, he spoke about the youngsters being will be shuffled in different positions.

โ€œThe openers will bat at their positions, same with the number 3, the spot is fixed (for Virat Kohli), KL Rahul played at number 5 before the injury he will do the same in Asia Cup, Hardik Pandya will bat at number 6 while number 7 is for Ravindra Jadeja. Players can shuffle a bit at numbers 4 and 5, there is no problem in that aspect, it's important to have that flexibility in the squad," the right-hand batter stated.

โ€œWhen we came to the ODI team there was no fixed batting position for the youngsters. Look at my batting positions when I started, I batted from top to bottom. Every youngster batted from top to bottom at the start of their career. It's not that we will send the opener to number 8 or vice versa. We don't do such madness (yeh pagalpanti nahi karte hum). A little bit of shuffling is important for the team," the Mumbai-born cricketer concluded.

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