Pakistan's Usman eyes five-star showing against India

Dubai - The two sides face-off at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium on Wednesday

Having warmed-up nicely with three wickets in an over in the Asia Cup opener against Hong Kong, Pakistan left-arm pacer Usman Khan is eyeing a five-star showing against old nemesis India on Wednesday.

The two sides face-off at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium on Wednesday, and Usman, who could be a part of an India-Pakistan encounter for the first time, is hoping to get a fifer.

"India is the No.1 team, they have excellent players. Definitely, when Pakistan and India have a match, not just the players but also the crowd gets excited. It's a big game and hopefully, we've prepared well enough," said Usman.

"Players that do well in India-Pakistan games command a lot of respect. I want to perform well in the game. I got three wickets today (Sunday), hopefully against India I can get five," he added.

The 24-year-old Usman has played seven ODIs so far with 18 wickets, with his best being 5-34 against Sri Lanka at Sharjah in October last year.

He also took four wickets against Zimbabwe in Bulawayo this July.

But Usman and the other fast men in the Pakistan team, who bowl left-arm - Mohammad Amir, Junaid Khan and Shaheen Afridi - won't have it easy with India trying to negate the threat by hiring a left-hand throwdown specialist.

India have got on board Nuwan Seneviratne from Sri Lanka for the Asia Cup and the 38-year-old from Colombo could become a permanent feature of the coaching staff with the team set for tough overseas assignments against Australia and New Zealand, where they will face the likes of Mitchell Starc.

Left-arm pacers have long troubled India, more recently England's Sam Curran.

Rohit Sharma, the stand-in captain, said Seneviratne was a valuable addition to the squad.

"We saw him in Sri Lanka when we were playing there. Of course, we have two right handers who do throwdowns for us, so we wanted to bring in that change because left-armers are important," said Rohit. "Looking at the future, we're going to be playing in Australia and they have quite a few left-arm bowlers. In Asia Cup as well we're going to be encountered with left-armers. I think it was a great move by BCCI to bring him in," he added.

India have also included uncapped left-arm pacer Khaleel Ahmed in the squad for the Asia Cup. The 20-year-old has been mentored by former India left-arm pacer Zaheer Khan.

james@khaleejtimes.com

• Asia Cup 2019