5 players to watch out for in India v/s Pakistan in the Asia Cup 2018

The Asia Cup gets underway on Aug 15th in the UAE. India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Hong Kong, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan will look to pip one another to lift the coveted trophy on 28th of this month.

The most anticipated encounter which is India vs Pakistan will be on the 19th of this month. It is the encounter that has gained even more popularity over the last year following India's embarrassing defeat against Pakistan in the final of the Champions Trophy 2017.

Let's have a look at the 5 players we need to keep an eye on this 19th.

---

#5 Shikhar Dhawan

India will require him to come big.

Following a dismal tour in England where Dhawan failed to register even a single 50+ score, all eyes will be on him trying to bounce back into form following such a disappointing tour.

The pitches in UAE are on the slower side and if Dhawan gets going against the new ball, it will be tough to stop him. Shikhar Dhawan has this knack of scoring at a quick rate. However, early on in his innings, Dhawan has a tendency to chase the balls outside off early on in his innings and that, more often than not, leads to his dismissal and that was very much visible against England. They had only one plan for him and that was to feed him balls outside off and he fell prey to it on numerous occasions.

It will be interesting to see how he adjusts his batting to the conditions of UAE considering the England tour just got over.

Dhawan will surely try to negate Amir and Hasan Ali because his success would largely depend on how he handles the two best bowlers of Pakistan.

Will he be successful against the deadly pace attack of Pakistan?

#4 Imam-ul-Haq

All eyes will be on the youngster.

Imam-ul-Haq has piled on runs for Pakistan recently but he hasn't been tested against tough oppositions. The 22-year-old will be certainly tested against the quality bowling attack of India consisting of Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammad Shami, Bhuvaneshwar Kumar and Shardul Thakur.

They are excellent new ball bowlers and playing against the new ball is always tough for a batsman. The left-hander has a subtle technique and scores his runs silently. It will be interesting to see how he fares against a strong Indian line up.

#3 Rohit Sharma

He is expected to lead the batting charts.

The opener for team India is expected to lead from the front and top the batting charts. In the past 3 outings against Pakistan Rohit Sharma has not fared well with Mohammad Amir getting the better of him every time with the new ball. Early on in his innings, Sharma tends to keep his feet planted in his crease and he takes a fair bit amount of time to set himself on the pitch.

After that, he is known to accelerate his innings by a big way. Moreover, his captaincy will be under the radar as the usual Captain, Virat Kohli has been rested. Kohli handled the pressure of captaincy along with his batting in crunch situations extremely well and it will be interesting to see how the Hitman handles himself and his team in the matches that really matter.

#2 Mohammad Amir

He will spearhead the deadly pace attack of Pakistan.

Known for the pace at which he bowls which is nothing short of an excess of 140 kph. Amir is a big swinger of the new ball and he enjoys playing against India. He is excellent at the death too and the last time these two sides played, Amir simply destroyed the entire top order of India, picking up the prized scalp of Virat Kohli.

On one occasion, Kohli was dropped but Amir got him the very next ball. This shows the type of the bowler that he is. If Pakistan is to complete a similar demolition act against India this time around, Amir will have to be at his very best.

Rohit vs Amir will be one battle to watch out for.

#1 MS Dhoni

Will we see Dhoni the finisher, once again?

A legend of Indian cricket -- the performance of MS Dhoni will be the most anticipated one considering that his finishing skills were once again under the radar. His wicket-keeping skills, no doubt, still remains the best. But what's more important to see is that on Aug 18th India play against Hong Kong and the very next day, against, Pakistan.

His fitness will be seen too because the recovery time for a crucial ODI will be very less and considering the fact that a wicket-keeper is the most worked player of a match, it will be crucial to see how Dhoni's body responds to such a workload.

India Vs Pakistan encounters are always exciting and this promises to be another cracker. Keep your eyes open!