India vs Pakistan Asia Cup 2022: KL Rahul will be READY to fire in THIS PAK pacer’s absence, says Scott Styris

Former New Zealand all-rounder Scott Styris went on to add that KL Rahul has the opportunity to be the star of Team India’s campaign at Asia Cup 2022.

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Team India opener KL Rahul was the stand-in skipper of the side and led the side to a 3-0 whitewash of Zimbabwe in the ODI series. Although he failed to fire as a batter, Rahul got some valuable time in the middle in the final ODI – scoring 30 off 46 balls.

Former New Zealand all-rounder Scott Styris believes that come Sunday (August 28) when India take on arch-rivals Pakistan in the Asia Cup 2022 match, KL Rahul will be ‘ready to fire’. “First of all, with regards to KL Rahul, I wouldn’t be worried either. I’d be worried if he’d be facing 5-10 balls each innings but the last one in particular – 46 deliveries I think it was. If that’s the case, it means that time in the middle is coming and that means that he will become more and more fluent, game time in the middle?” Styris said on SPORTS18’s daily sports news show ‘Sports over the top’.

“Far more valuable than the nets. So, I expect he’ll be ready to go against Pakistan. Now, for that one? I’m with you though, I think he’s going to go okay. The reason is for that is no Shaheen Afridi, we know that he’s out injured, the way he attacks the stumps that is the way you get KL Rahul out. LBW and bowled. The fact that the main man who exposes that weakness is not there,” Styris added.

How will @iShaheenAfridi's injury impact @cricketpakcompk at the #AsiaCup2022?@scottbstyris weighs in

Tune in to #SportsOTT, weeknights at 8 pm, on #Sports18 for more insights #ShaheenAfridi pic.twitter.com/1i5n9jCPU7

— Sports18 (@Sports18) August 23, 2022

He went on to add that Rahul has the opportunity to be the star of Team India’s campaign at Asia Cup 2022. “I think KL Rahul has got an opportunity to be the star still, that we know he is because as Saba rightly pointed out, the pedigree is there,” Styris said.

Former India selector Saba Karim also spoke about the new breed of Indian cricketers. “Yeah, this is the new breed of Indian cricketers who have been so impressive and most of them, or at least 2-3 of them you can pick out from there can become all-format players for India. And Shubman Gill is right up in the pecking order,” Saba Karim said on the show.

“We talked about Rishabh Pant, we can talk about Shubman Gill now. So, there are so many youngsters who are coming up to order, but also it means that due to this tough competition that we see now in the Indian side, anybody who gets an opportunity wants to score big, wants to make an impact,” he added.