ISLAMABAD: Millions of fans are expected to be glued to their television screens across the world as South Asian cricketing giants Pakistan and India will be facing off each other in their opening fixture of the Asia Cup 2022 at the Dubai International Stadium on Sunday evening.

This will be the 10th time in cricket’s shortest format that the two heavyweights will lock horns as political tensions between the bitter rivals mean they now only face each other in international tournaments.

The two sides last met each other in a 2021 T20 World Cup encounter at the same venue, when Pakistan outplayed India by 10 wickets to bring the house down.

Pakistan captain Babar Azam believes his side’s victory over India in last year’s T20 Word Cup would serve as a good reference point.

“While we will continue to reflect on it [2021 victory over India] positively, Sunday and any other matches down the line will be new fixtures that will be played in new conditions,” Azam said in a statement on Saturday.

“I know there is tremendous excitement in both countries but for us, it is just another game. Our preparations have been excellent and we will take the field oozing with confidence.”

Pakistan will be relying on their second-string pace attack after destructive pacer Shaheen Shah Afridi was ruled out for at least four weeks because of a knee injury. The side suffered a second blow in its pace armory on Friday when Mohammad Wasim Junior was also ruled out because of a side strain.

The traditional rivalry between the South Asian giants will be spiced up by how well Virat Kohli performs in Dubai later today. Kohli returns to international cricket after a break of seven weeks during which India defeated the West Indies and Zimbabwe in white-ball cricket without its ace batter.

It has been more than 1,000 days since Kohli last scored a 100 in international cricket and he will be looking to make his 100th T20 international appearance on Sunday to end the debate on his future in the shorter version of the game.

Squads

Pakistan: Babar Azam (captain), Shadab Khan (vice-captain), Asif Ali, Fakhar Zaman, Haider Ali, Haris Rauf, Iftikhar Ahmed, Khushdil Shah, Hasan Ali, Mohammad Hasnain, Mohammad Nawaz, Mohammad Rizwan, Naseem Shah, Shahnawaz Dahani and Usman Qadir

India: Rohit Sharma (captain), KL Rahul (vice-captain), Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Deepak Hooda, R Pant, Dinesh Karthik, Hardik Pandya, R Jadeja, R Ashwin, Y Chahal, Ravi Bishnoi, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Arshdeep Singh, Avesh Khan