The Asia Cup 2022 will see arch-rivals Indian cricket team and Pakistan cricket team facing each other  on August 28. Every time these two teams face off on the cricket field, the focus and scrutiny on the match is intense. The last time the two teams played each other, at the 2021 T20 World Cup, Pakistan emerged victorious to register their first-ever win against India in a World Cup contest. Virat Kohli was the captain of the Indian side then, whereas Rohit Sharma is the skipper now.

Ahead of the high-voltage contest, former Australian cricket team player Shane Watson was asked on  ‘The ICC Review’ to predict the winner of the Asia Cup.

“My predicted winner is India. They’re so strong and depending on what the conditions are, they adapt easily to conditions,” Watson said.

When asked about India’s big hurdle on their way to win the title, Watson said arch-rivals Pakistan would pose a major challenge.

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“That first game is going to be very special to watch because Pakistan have full belief now that they can beat this Indian team,” said Watson. “I think, really, whoever wins that game is going to go on and win the Asia Cup. [But] I’ve just got a feeling India [will win the tournament]. They’ve got so much firepower all the way through their batting order, so it’s going to be hard to be able to contain them.”

India’s squad for Asia Cup: Rohit Sharma (Captain), KL Rahul (vice-captain), Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Deepak Hooda, Rishabh Pant (wicket-keeper), Dinesh Karthik (wicket-keeper), Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, R. Ashwin, Yuzvendra Chahal, Ravi Bishnoi, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Arshdeep Singh, Avesh Khan