With just days to go before the blockbuster India-Pakistan clash at the Asia Cup, former Pakistan captain Rashid Latif has tipped India as favourites while insisting his country still has the firepower to spring a surprise. India, led by Suryakumar Yadav, began their campaign with a commanding nine-wicket win over Hong Kong. Pakistan, meanwhile, will open against Oman on Friday before taking on their arch-rivals.
Rashid Latif praised India’s balance, pointing to their mix of bowlers and aggressive batters.
“Kuldeep, Axar, Varun, Jasprit, Hardik and Shivam are all good bowlers. They have five batters and five bowlers that make a good combination,” he told IANS.
Rashid Latif highlighted the explosive strike rates of Suryakumar Yadav, Shubman Gill, Abhishek Sharma and Sanju Samson, while lauding the control shown by India’s bowlers.
“I want Pakistan to win, but if analysed on skill, India are ahead. The competition is so fierce in India that even performers like Shreyas Iyer, Washington Sundar, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Ravi Bishnoi and Ishan Kishan are missing from the squad. Pakistan don’t have that depth,” he said.
Still, Rashid Latif maintained Pakistan have match-winners who can tilt the game.
“Sahibzada Farhan is aggressive from ball one, and Mohammad Nawaz will be playing against India for the first time. Fakhar Zaman and Saim Ayub can deliver big knocks if the pitch helps batters,” he noted.
While acknowledging India’s edge, Rashid Latif concluded that Pakistan remain unpredictable:
“We can’t write off Pakistan — they can do anything on their day.”
Former Pakistan player Rashid Latif said that the reason the men in Green lose more often than not while facing arch-rivals India is because they let their emotions get better of them during these high-pressure matches. The two teams will face off once again in the Asia Cup on Sunday, their first match since the Pahalgam terror attacks which strained the relations between the two countries to almost a breaking point earlier this year.
We get emotional or hyper- Rashid Latif
Former Pakistan captain Rashid Latif believes that his country’s men’s team gets ’emotional’ and ‘hyper’ whenever they come up against rivals India, which has contributed to the lopsided record in the Men in Blue’s favor. He said India, unlike Pakistan, have always played objectively and according to the match situation.
Rashid Latif’s comments came on the eve of the 2025 Asia Cup clash between the two sides. Until this game, they have met 13 times in T20Is, with India winning 10 of them and Pakistan the other three.
“We get emotional or hyper and try to do everything in one go. We don’t take the games deep against India and because of this, Pakistan lose most of the time,” Rashid Latif said in an interview withPTI Videos.
“India on the other hand play according to the pitch and match situation and that’s why they succeed.”
The Asia Cup clash is likely to be the most emotionally charged in a long time. The neighboring countries have been warring for decades now, but only a few months ago, the Pahalgam terror attack was seen as an inflection point, with widespread calls in India to end all cricketing relations with Pakistan, including from the men’s head coach Gautam Gambhir. The atmosphere in both countries has been tense since.
“There is pressure on Pakistan which they have been carrying for the last 30 years. So maybe India will try to take advantage of it,” Rashid Latif said.
Rashid Latif, however, said that there’s a possible weakness for India when it comes to T20Is which is that they haven’t played in this format for a while now with their last T20I series being the bilateral series against England in January.
“The only disadvantage in India is that they have not played T20Is. They must be playing warm-up matches or practicing. But they have not played any match. This may be a disadvantage,” he added.
Rashid Latif said although the Pakistani team is more or less the same that India have come across in the last five years, Sahibzada Farhan could be the Men in Green’s surprise package.
“He has been topping the T20 for the last 3-4 years. He has scored around 1000 runs. He has scored 4-5 centuries last season. So he has brought himself back. The good thing about him is that he plays T20 cricket the way it should be played. He follows the role given to him. He doesn’t play for himself. He tries to get momentum in the first 10-12 overs and that’s been his success mantra,” he said.
India have had the edge over Pakistan in recent times. In the 2022 T20 World Cup at Melbourne, Virat Kohli’s unbeaten 82 pulled India out of trouble to win by four wickets off the final ball. A year later in the Asia Cup, India hammered Pakistan by 228 runs in Colombo, with their Super Four clash washed out.In the 2024 T20 World Cup in USA, India sealed a six-run win as India defended just 119.
Pakistan, meanwhile, come into the tournament having played a triangular series on difficult spinning tracks, an experience Latif feels could help them adapt quickly. Team India after a thumping win over UAE will continue their Asia Cup campaign with a crucial contest vs Pakistan on Sunday September 14 and the Team would look to seal the Super 4s berth with a win in this match.