First week of Asia Cup 2023: India’s top-order debacle to Pakistan's deadly pace trio

The first week of the Asia Cup is behind us, and it has substantially been a bland commencement to the cricket fever that is about to kick in next month. The tournament's struggles to gain recognition in the midst of sporadic bilateral contests over the last decade does not go unnoticed. Yet the current edition brings a lot more to the table than one can imagine.

While the waning of 50-over cricket is no secret, the Asia Cup 2023 is a final gateway for five of the six teams, barring Nepal, to cast aside their selection dilemma ahead of the ICC Cricket Men's World's Cup, starting October 5.

There are bilateral contests to name a few ahead of the global event, but nothing matches the high-octane thrill of India-Pakistan, India-Bangladesh, or Sri Lanka-Pakistan encounters. The 18-day tournament will guarantee an atmosphere of a multi-nation tournament, closely mirroring that of the fast-approaching World Cup.

The match-ups of heavyweights taking on the minnows expectedly generated a lukewarm response among fans in the opening week, while the persistent rain added to the gloom every now and then. The one exception to the mediocre set of early matches could have been the India-Pakistan affair but Kandy weather had other plans in store. Traditionally, each time the two countries take the field, the frenzy among fans reaches unheard-of heights.

But Pallekele looked different on Saturday. The rows of empty seats in the stands and on the grass banks were shockingly appalling. Following a 50-over inning that saw highly oscillating fortunes and a below-par top-order performance, the palpable excitement around India's quest for a possible tenth victory over Pakistan in the Asia Cup across formats turned into a damp squib.

Over the next two weeks, rivalries would get renewed and new heroes would emerge - but for the moment, what follows is Mid-Day's perspective on the key observations from week one of the Asia Cup.

India frets over fielding lapses & left-arm pacers

Jasprit Bumrah's return after a long injury layoff ensured India had fast bowling options at their disposal. The tournament has given enough time to the management to observe how the pace duo of Bumrah and Prasidh Krishna have reacted to the increased workload in the energy-sapping Sri Lankan humidity. But what is truly puzzling is the depths to which the Men in Blue's fielding standards have dived. The three catches going down inside the first five overs on Monday brought back not very pleasant memories from the late 90s and early 2000s. From how it has panned out in the last decade or so, chasing 255 against India is akin to chasing 220 against any other team, as the side unfailingly concedes 30-35 runs on the field on a typical day.

But the fielding woes are not entirely shocking. As India's desperate attempts to form a solid ODI line-up yielded little fruit, there is a nagging problem growing at the top of the order. There is seemingly no end to their prolonged struggle against left-arm pacers in limited-overs cricket. More often than not, wickets have been surrendered, with little to no resistance, notably during the powerplay stage. Rohit Sharma and Co. met with a similar fate on Saturday, with Pakistan once again dominating the proceedings with some early wickets.

Also Read: Rain wins the day at Pallekele!

The many mercurial wizards of Pakistan

Babar Azam's Green Army clearly displayed their stunning reserve of talent with ball and the willow. Their showdown against arch-rivals India was impressive, and the Nepal beat-down in the opener was brutal. As spectacular as they have been on paper, the fearsome trio of Shaheen Afridi, Naseem Shah and Haris Rauf is on a whole different level. Together, they have scalped 49 wickets this year, with Rauf leading the tally with 17 wickets from just ten appearances.

Besides, the stability that Babar, Fakhar Zaman, and Imam-ul-Haq have brought to the fulcrum of the batting order cannot be emphasized enough. Sure, Pakistan's middle-order conundrum across all formats have never faded away, however, their top three have time and again stabilized the core, allowing the lower order to throw their bats around at the end.

Minnows against heavyweights

So far, the Asia Cup has been relatively low key with the big fish taking on the minnows with predictable results. It is readily apparent that Asia's cricket landscape currently consists of three really good teams - India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and two teams that can oscillate between ‘great' and ‘below-par' on any given day - Afghanistan and Bangladesh.

The opening group stages have clear three favourites to advance to the final from each pool - India and Pakistan from Group A, and Sri Lanka from Group B. That a three-way battle for the coveted title will be among the three is not so hard a prediction to come by, but don't let that lull you into thinking that Shakib Al Hasan's Bangladesh could spring surprise over the ‘big three'.