Team India captain Rohit Sharma dropped a bombshell when he announced at the toss of India vs Hong Kong clash in Asia Cup 2022 that Hardik Pandya was not playing in Dubai on Wednesday (August 31). He informed that the team was taking this decision to keep on giving Hardik a break. He did not say this but the decision could be taken keeping in mind the T20 World Cup where India will be needing Hardik the most. With the important game against Pakistan in the past, and Hong Kong not being as threatening as Pakistan, India decided to rest Hardik. He was replaced by Rishabh Pant, who was missing in the game against Pakistan. In this game vs Hong Kong, both wicketkeepers - Pant and Dinesh Karthik- are featuring in XI.     


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"We were going to bowl first as well. Looks like an even covering of grass and we need to bat well to get to a good score. We just want to continue to do what we are doing as a team. We don`t want to look at the opposition and play good and hard cricket. We need to do our basics right, which is what got us a victory against Pakistan. One change: Hardik Pandya is rested considering how important he is for us, Rishabh Pant comes in," said Rohit Sharma at the toss. 


Hong Kong retained the same team that played in the qualifiers.


As soon as it was announced that Pant was playing, Twitter was abuzz with many reactions. Check them out below. 







India and Hong Kong played their previous two contests in Asia Cups (2008, 2018) in the ODI format. This will be the first time the two sides will mark their first meeting in a T20I. If India beat Hong Kong tonight, they will move into the Super 4s where they are likely to meet arch-rivals Pakistan again on September 4. India beat Pakistan in their first match of Asia Cup 2022 by 5 wickets to start their campaign on a bright note. Hardik should be back in the playing XI for that match.