Star Sports deletes Asia Cup promo revealing Dhawan's bombastic '...don't lose to Pakistan' message for Team India

Shikhar Dhawan has long fallen out of reckoning for a place in India's limited-overs squad. He lost his T20I spot back in 2021 and later was removed from the ODI team as well after a string of poor performances last year, leaving Shubman Gill to stake his claim as Rohit Sharma's new partner heading into the 2023 World Cup. However, Dhawan will be part of the impending Asia Cup that begins later this month in Pakistan and Sri Lanka, but in a new role. He will be part of Star Sports' broadcasting team as an expert as revealed in a video shared by them on Monday before they removed it from social media.

The 56-second clip was captioned: "Witness the passion and intensity of mother of all rivalries, India vs Pakistan through the eyes of @SDhawan25 and look what he has to say!" The veteran India opener is seen talking about the high-octane clash in Pallekele next month where Rohit Sharma-led Men in Blue will be up against Babar Azam's men. This will be the first meeting between the two rivals since India's stunning win in Melbourne last year in the T20 World Cup.

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Talking about the match, Dhawan reiterated an old message among Indian cricket fanatics of not losing to Pakistan irrespective of the result in the World Cup. He then talked about his experience of having played against Pakistan throughout his career.

“It has always been the case of 'Whether or not you win the World Cup, don't lose to Pakistan' (laughs). But winning the World Cup is also important and by god's grace hopefully we will. There's definitely excitement (while playing Pakistan) but also a lot of pressure. There's definitely a satisfying feeling playing against them when the match ends. Whenever I have played Pakistan, we have won mostly. The intensity on the field is also high, but there's also some light chat with them.” he said. Star Sports however removed the video from their Twitter handle later.

What is India's schedule in Asia Cup 2023?

India will begin their campaign against Pakistan on September 2 before taking on Nepal a day later. Meanwhile, Pakistan will be playing the tournament opener against Nepal on August 30.

Pakistan and Sri Lanka will be co-hosting the Asia Cup. While the former was the primary host for the tournament, with the Indian government not willing to send the Men in Blue to Pakistan amid the political tension between the two neighbouring nations, ACC had to rope in Sri Lanka as the second host nation. Pakistan will be hence staging four matches - the opener in Multan while Lahore will host two group games and one knockout match. The remaining matches will be played in Sri Lanka including the final.