Sunday’s clash against Pakistan in Dubai will of course be a “challenging” one, but India’s focus will be more on the purpose and what they want to achieve from this Asia Cup — captain Rohit Sharma was clear and forthright in his views.

Talking to reporters on the eve of the much-anticipated contest, Rohit said: “The mood in our camp is buzzing. We want to make a new and fresh start. and we’re not thinking about the past.

“It’s challenging to play against Pakistan, without a doubt. But for us, what’s important is what we are thinking as a group and what we want to achieve from this tournament.

“Taking one game at a time and all those things will play a huge role, so we’ll focus on that rather than thinking about the opposition.

“We are here for a purpose and as I said, we want to achieve something from this tournament. So we will be focusing more on that.”

With not too many days to go for the T20 World Cup in Australia, India are concentrating more on the boxes they need to tick before the showpiece event.

India will be finalising their XI only after analysing the pitch, which would be the one used for Saturday’s tournament opener featuring Sri Lanka and Afghanistan.

“The team combination will be finalised only after we see the pitch and after today (Saturday)’s game, because we’ll be playing on the same pitch. That’s what we were told,” Rohit said.

Mental freshness

Virat Kohli has revealed how he has had to “fake intensity” in order to conceal feeling “mentally down” during the lean patch he has been going through.

Speaking in the same context, Rohit acknowledged the need for players to stay mentally fresh.

“We do talk about these things a lot. When Covid-19 struck, it became difficult for a lot of players, not just Virat. We do talk about how we can keep the players mentally fresh,” Rohit said.