KL Rahul is looking forward to the challenge of meeting Pakistan in their Asia Cup opener on Sunday. “For now, we all are very excited. As players and as an Indian cricket team, we always look forward to this India-Pakistan clash, we do not play against each other anywhere else, only in big tournaments. So it is always exciting and it is a great challenge for all of us to compete against a good team like Pakistan,” Rahul said during a media conference in Dubai on Friday.

“There has been a huge history, there has always been a rivalry. The games have always been high-intensity, so as players, we looking forward to playing this game,” he added. This will be the first meeting between the two teams since Pakistan beat India by 10 wickets at the same venue in the last (T20) World Cup.

“Losing any game in a World Cup always hurts you a little bit. It was our first game of the World Cup last year and we were very excited. Any team that enters the World Cup wants to start well, but unfortunately, that did not happen for us,” Rahul said. “Yes we get an opportunity to once again play against them, it is a contest we are all looking forward to and are eager to go out there.

“The game starts from zero, there might be history but it does not count for anything. It will always start from zero,” he said. Rahul accepted that the teams cannot “run from the rivalry and emotion” surrounding the matches between the two teams. “We cannot run from the rivalry... We as youngsters have always looked forward to such clashes,” Rahul said.

“I have been a part of it a couple of times, once you cross the rope, it becomes a contest between bat and all. You see the opposition as opposition. You try to focus on yourself more than the opposition.” Rahul, who met the injured Shaheen Shah Afridi after practice on Thursday, shared his concern for the pacer.

“Shaheen Shah Afridi is a world-class bowler, he is a quality bowler. Left-arm seamers right now in world cricket are the most dangerous and they are causing problems for batters. If he would have played, it would have been a good experience for us. Unfortunately, he is injured.”