Ahead of the Asia Cup 2023 start, the official broadcaster Star Sports released a couple of promos for the event – one for the overall Asia Cup 2023 event and another promo for India exclusively.
Though the promo went viral and received tons of praise, Star Sports deleted a promo soon after they released featuring Indian opener Shikhar Dhawan. In that video, Dhawan spoke about the Asia Cup match between India and Pakistan which is scheduled for next month and also talks about the experience of the rivalry between these teams.
Broadcasters Deletes Asia Cup Promo of Dhawan’s message
After being sidelined from the Indian cricket team for nearly a year, Dhawan failed to make an entry in the Asia Cup 2023 Squad. Out-of-favour Indian opener Shikhar Dhawan will be making his commentary debut in the upcoming Asia Cup 2023 for official broadcasters.
The Asia Cup 2023 is scheduled to begin on August 30 and Pakistan will have a meeting against Nepal in the inaugural match. Shikhar Dhawan has been part of ICC matches and faced Pakistan on a number of occasions.
With the India team set to take on Pakistan in a number of games in upcoming months, Dhawan spoke about the rivalry in a promotional clip.
The official broadcaster Star Sports deleted the video soon after posting it on their social media.
Shikhar Dhawan says that it is important to win against Pakistan, even more than winning in the tournament. The comment by the Indian player would surely trigger the emotions of both nations.
The India cricketer Shikhar Dhawan had participated many times in the match against arch-rivals Pakistan on various occasions.
He talks about the highly anticipated match between India and Pakistan in Pallekele next month where India will be facing Pakistan on September 2.
The post where the caption of the deleted 56-second clip read: “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!”
“It has always been the case of ‘Whether or not you win the World Cup, doesn’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.
Previously the foreign ministry of Pakistan has confirmed Pakistan Cricket Team’s participation in the 2023 ODI World Cup which is set to take place in India from October 5 to November 19. The announcement was made on Sunday in a press release on the mofa.gov.pk website.
Pakistan’s participation in the ODI World Cup was in doubt after the Pakistan Cricket Board threatened to abandon the tournament in India after BCCI’s denial to send its players to Pakistan for the Asia Cup-hosted cities for security reasons.
The Asia Cup, which starts on August 30, is eventually being played in Pakistan and Sri Lanka with India playing all their matches in Sri Lanka. Meanwhile, Pakistan’s foreign ministry had said that sports and politics should not be confused in a statement.
“Pakistan has consistently maintained that sports should not be mixed with politics. It has, therefore, decided to send its Cricket Team to India to participate in the upcoming ICC Cricket World Cup 2023,” said on the statement.
