India vs Pakistan in Asia Cup 2022: It's not Virat Kohli vs Babar Azam, Pakistan captain to battle with Suryakumar Yadav for top spot in ICC T20 ranking

Rohit Sharma-led Indian cricket team will face Babar Azam's Pakistan in their opening match of Asia Cup 2022 on August 28 at the Dubai International Stadium. This will be the first time the arch-rivals take on each other since the ICC T20 World Cup 2021 where Team India faced a heart-breaking defeat against Men in Green. The cricket fans are already gearing up for 'Virat Kohli vs Babar Azam' battle in the epic clash. However, it will not be 'Th Battle of the Match', as Babar Azam will be challenged by India's Suryakumar Yadav for the number one spot in the ICC T20 rankings for batsmen.

50 on debut
100 while playing at 4 when team struggles
Avg 38+
SR 175+
Never played restrictive against any bowling form
Whatever the ranking/records says
No One is better T20 batter than #SuryakumarYadav at the moment in the world#IndvsWI #CricketTwitter @BCCI @surya_14kumar _ pic.twitter.com/NXja0PFK27

— celestial_sphere (@civil_engg2021) August 3, 2022

Suryakumar is only 13 points behind Pakistan captain Babar in the latest ICC T20I batting rankings. Emerging opener Yadav was the leading run-scorer during the West Indies series with 135 runs, but the decision to rest him for the final match meant he missed out on the chance to overtake Babar at the head of proceedings. Yadav remains in second place on the T20I rankings, with Babar now holding a lead of 13 rating points ahead of the eagerly awaited meeting between India and Pakistan at the Asia Cup in Dubai later this month.

Asia Cup Squads

India: Rohit Sharma (c), KL Rahul, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant, Deepak Hooda, Dinesh Karthik, Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, R Ashwin, Yuzvendra Chahal, Ravi Bishnoi, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Arshdeep Singh, Avesh Khan. Standby: Shreyas Iyer, Axar Patel, Deepak Chahar.

Pakistan: Babar Azam (c), Shadab Khan, Asif Ali, Fakhar Zaman, Haider Ali, Haris Rauf, Iftikhar Ahmed, Khushdil Shah, Mohammad Nawaz, Mohammad Rizwan, Mohammad Wasim Jnr, Naseem Shah, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Shahnawaz Dahani, Usman Qadir.