With an India-Pakistan match of cricket around the corner, there is some obvious hype and anticipation. As the two teams only play against each other at multi-nation tournaments and ICC events, the two teams’ fans eagerly wait for such games. Now, India and Pakistan are set to open their campaigns at the 2022 Asia Cup against each other and the fans are more excited than ever. 

But there is a little twist for both teams as their respective star bowlers have been ruled out of the tournament with injuries. While India will be missing the services of Jasprit Bumrah, Pakistan will be without Shaheen Shah Afridi. Both the quick bowlers have sustained injuries and won’t be able to represent their respective teams at the continental tournament. While Bumrah was ruled out even before the squad was announced, Afridi’s unavailability was confirmed by PCB on Saturday.

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With Afridi ruled out, Pakistan cricket team fans have started reacting, and former Pakistan cricketer Waqar Younis also reacted. He expressed disappointment at the news but also took a dig at the Indian batters by saying that “Shaheen’s injury Big relief for the Indian top order batsmen. Sad we won’t be seeing him in #AsiaCup2022 Get fit soon Champ @iShaheenAfridi.”

Now, former India pacer Irfan Pathan has taken an indirect dig at Younis as he pointed out that India will be without both Bumrah and Harshal Patel. “It’s a relief of other teams that Bumrah and Harshal aren’t playing this Asia cup!” tweeted Pathan.

India Squad: 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

Pakistan Squad: Babar Azam (captain), Shadab Khan (vice-captain), Fakhar Zaman, Haider Ali, Haris Rauf, Iftikhar Ahmed, Khushdil Shah, Mohammad Nawaz, Mohammad Rizwan, Mohammad Wasim Jr, Naseem Shah, Shahnawaz Dahani, Usman Qadir.