Arch-rivals India and Pakistan will battle it out once again when both teams step out to the park to take on each other in the Super-4 stage of the ongoing Asia Cup on Sunday at the Dubai International Stadium. Having beaten Pakistan earlier in the group stage, Rohit Sharma and co. will have momentum on their side and they will look to march ahead with it. Ahead of the game, head coach Rahul Dravid said that pacer Avesh Khan is feeling a bit “under the weather”, but hopefully it is “nothing too serious”.

“Avesh has just been feeling a little bit unwell, just been under the weather and a bit of fever and stuff. We have got a doctor who is managing him. He is not at practice today, hopefully, it is not too serious and he is okay for tomorrow, at least the later part of the tournament,” Dravid said during a press conference.

One positive sign for India in this ongoing Asia Cup has been the form of Virat Kohli, who has registered scores of 35 and 59*. Before this tournament, Kohli had taken a break from the series against West Indies and Zimbabwe.

Talking about his conversations with Kohli, Dravid said: “First thing, the talks that happen between the coach and player, I would not come and disclose that in the media. No coach will reveal the personal talks,” he said, before giving the conversation a lighter turn.

“We were also talking about the food and where you can get good in Dubai, he knows a lot about good restaurants,” he said with a little laugh.

“He played very well in the last match, we all were happy. He is coming back after a gap of one month. It is nice to see that he has come back fresh and he is really looking forward to playing the game, not that he was not looking to play the game before,” Dravid said.

“Virat is one of those guys who is always on. It is nice, I am glad that he has had that break and he has come back fresh and relaxed. He has gotten a chance to play in the middle and play a couple of games where he has got to spend some time in the middle and hopefully from here on, he can kick on and have a really good tournament,” he added.

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Further talking about the former India skipper, the head coach said: “For us, it is not really about looking at how many runs he makes. Especially with Virat, people get a little bit obsessed with his statistics and numbers. For us, it is not really about that, it is about the contributions he can make in different phases of the game and what the contribution is. It does not have to be the 50s or 100s.”

“Even small contributions mean a lot in T20 cricket. Virat is someone who is pretty keen on putting on big performances. Really glad that he is playing so well, hopefully, he can keep doing that in the rest of the tournament,” he added.