India is all set to play its last game in the ongoing Asia Cup 2022 on Thursday (September 8) in Dubai against Afghanistan.
The Men in Blue were eliminated from the race to the final along with the Mohammad Nabi-led side after Pakistan crushed Afghanistan in a thrilling super 4s match by one wicket in Sharjah to become the second finalist alongside Sri Lanka on Wednesday (September 7).
After India’s exit from the Asia Cup 2022, former Indian captain Sunil Gavaskar urged the fans to continue to support the Men in Blue side, as well as suggested the team management find out those areas where they need to work on, as T20 World Cup 2022 is not much far.
The legendary batter said that Team India has already won the Asia Cup 2022 many times, so fans should not cry over the team’s early exit but support the team as they are gearing up for the upcoming T20 World Cup 2022, which will be played in Australia from October 13.
Sunil Gavaskar told India Today: “Let's get behind this Indian team. Give them encouragement. Yes, okay fine, this has happened, but what is more important now? The T20 World Cup. Because after 2007, India has not won the T20 World Cup. India has won the Asia Cup quite a number of times. It's time to get behind and tell them it's happened, but please see the areas you can improve and plug those gaps.”
Gavaskar also suggested India stop talking about the workload management and experiments ahead of the T20 World Cup 2022 and play their strongest XI in the upcoming home series against Australia and South Africa.
“It has not come about (sync) because you haven’t had the same team playing. You get into a sync when the whole team is playing. You try to experiment, there is nothing wrong with that. There are always 3 or 4 places up for grabs in a team and in the process of trying to identify those players, you try to go in with different teams. What that did was obviously, you know, when other players come back into the team, the sync will take a longer time,” Gavaskar further said.
