The penultimate match of the round robin phase of the Asia Cup sees India taking on the UAE in Dhaka in a battle which is technically only a dead rubber.
The reason for that is because with three wins from three India are assured of a place in the final of the tournament while with three defeats from three matches UAE know they will be going home after this match whether they win it or lose it.
India started the tournament slowly against Bangladesh and apart from the odd wobble against Pakistan and Sri Lanka they have largely been in control of their destiny so far and now they have the chance to use this match to warm up for the final and get everything working how they would like.
MS Dhoni has suggested changes will be made to the India side for this match which makes sense given that the World T20 is less than a week away now. Ajinkya Rahane, Pawan Negi, Harbhajan Singh and Bhuvneshwar Kumar are among those who could come into the side.
UAE have given three spirited performances in this tournament, especially with the ball, but they have come up short on all three occasions. They have nothing to lose here as they look for their first full member scalp but it is to their credit and shows their improvement that they qualified for this in the first place.
Whether UAE will take the chance to play those who have been on the sidelines for much of the tournament remain to be seen but whoever plays they will need to put up a significantly better show with the bat if they are to be competitive here.
This will be the first time these two nations have met in a T20 international. They have met three times in the 50 over format though and India have won all three. They won by 71 runs, 116 runs and by nine wickets in their most recent clash at last year’s World Cup.
That highlights the size of the task for UAE here and whether India make changes or not it is hard to see UAE winning this game. Such potential changes puts me off taking the Indians on a handicap though as players coming in will be without cricket for a while and might be slightly off the pace.
Ultimately I don’t think this is a match to go too heavy on. It is a dead rubber after all and anything can happen in them. I’m just going to go with a small punt on the Top India Bowler for a bit of interest.
It would be no surprise if the likes of Ashish Nehra and Ravi Ashwin are rested for this match. Nehra needs managing well these days anyway while Ashwin is a key figure for India in all formats of the game so that could open the door up for a lesser known bowler to come through.
That man could be Hardik Pandya. The seaming all-rounder has bowled really well in this tournament so far with figures of 1/23 against Bangladesh, 3/8 against Pakistan and 2/26 against Sri Lanka and we’ve seen the UAE struggle with the bat against the seamers all tournament.
Given the form he is in Pandya looks overpriced to deliver the goods for India in this one and I’m happy to be on at 6/1.
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