Xtra Time Web Desk: India will be facing off against Hong Kong on 31st August at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium. It will be the fourth game of the Asia Cup 2022. India is coming off a win in their first game against Pakistan and a win in this game will ensure them a Super 4 spot along with Afghanistan.
The Rohit Sharma-led side beat arch-rivals against Pakistan by five wickets and have made a great start in the Asia Cup. On the other hand, Hong Kong won the Asia Cup qualifiers and have earned the right to qualify for the main event. The team entered the main draw of the Asia Cup by defeating Kuwait, Singapore and U.A.E. in the qualifying tournament.
Hardik Pandya has been phenomenal with both bat and ball, Virat Kohli seems to have gained back his form, and the Indian pacers have been highly destructive with the ball in their last game against Pakistan. But the focus will be on KL Rahul as in the last game he got dismissed on a golden duck.
INDIA Probable XI:
India: Rohit Sharma (c), KL Rahul, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Avesh Khan, Arshdeep Singh, Yuzvendra Chahal
Hong Kong has been in decent form and has qualified for the Asia Cup for the second time. They have been playing consistent cricket over the years and their star players will definitely make an impact here.
Hong Kong skipper Nizakat Khan stated on Tuesday that “winning and losing is a part of the game, as long as we play our best cricket. Playing against India and Pakistan is a massive opportunity for everyone. We need to learn from them. We need to capitalise on these two games, and show that we are good enough to play against big teams.”
HONG KONG Probable XI:
Yasim Murtaza, Nizakat Khan (c), Babar Hayat, Kinchit Shah, Aizaz Khan, Scott Mckechnie, Zeeshan Ali (wk), Haroon Arshad, Ehsan Khan, Mohammad Ghazanfar, Ayush Shukla
Pitch Report:
India will play their 2nd game again on the same ground. It is also the 3rd match on this pitch. Thus, the pitch can be relatively slow.
Expected Score in First Innings: 143 to 165
Weather Report:
As per the sources, it will be quite hot during the day. The temperature will drop down to somewhere around 30° Celsius at night. A clear sky is expected in Dubai today with absolutely no rain predicted. The wind speed is expected to be around 19km/h while the humidity is forecasted to be around 37 percent.
Match Datails:
Asia Cup Match 4
Group: A
Match: India vs Hong Kong
Date: 31st August, 2022
Toss: 7:00 PM
Time: 7:30 PM
Venue: Dubai International Stadium