{"id":133378,"date":"2025-09-13T00:02:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-13T00:02:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/133378\/"},"modified":"2025-09-13T00:02:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-13T00:02:07","slug":"team-ready-for-pakistan-battle-india-batting-coach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/133378\/","title":{"rendered":"Team ready for Pakistan battle: India batting coach"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dubai, Sep 12: India\u2019s batting coach Sitanshu Kotak on Friday said the team\u2019s focus has solely been on cricket since the BCCI \u201caligned itself\u201d with the government\u2019s decision to play against Pakistan in the Asia Cup, brushing aside the noise around the politically charged contest.
The traditional rivals will face off here on Sunday in what will be the first match between the two sides since the escalation of the border conflict in May when India launched strikes on terror infrastructure in Pakistan after 26 tourists were killed in a dastardly attack in Pahalgam.
\u201cOnce BCCI said they are aligned with government\u2019s decision, our focus was always on the match.
It\u2019s India versus Pakistan, and it will be an interesting game,\u201d Kotak told mediapersons on the sidelines of India\u2019s training session at the ICC Academy ground.
\u201cIndia versus Pakistan is always a competitive game,\u201d he added.
Asked whether the cricketers can truly remain unaffected by the geopolitical tensions that followed the terror attack in Kashmir, Kotak simply said, \u201cPlayers are focused on the ground and nothing else is on their minds.\u201d
Calls for boycotting cricketing ties with Pakistan grew louder since the attack in Kashmir, after which India launched \u2018Operation Sindoor\u2019 on terrorist bases in the neighbouring country.
As per a new policy announced by the government recently, India will not engage in any bilateral sporting contest with Pakistan but will continue to face the neighbours in multilateral tournaments such as the ongoing Asia Cup cricket tournament or events organised by the ICC.
However, the spotlight has now shifted firmly to the marquee Asia Cup clash.
Both sides have had contrasting preparations, with India backing the leadership of Suryakumar Yadav in the shortest format, even as Pakistan entered the tournament under scrutiny for leaving out senior pros Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan in a bid to rejig their T20 set-up.
With political tensions simmering in the background and emotions running high on both sides of the border, Sunday\u2019s clash promises to be more than just a cricket match.
On the other hand, for India, the message from the dressing room is clear\u2014block out the noise, stick to the game plan, and let the cricket do the talking.
For Pakistan, the challenge lies in proving their rejigged setup can withstand the heat of a high-voltage contest. (PTI)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dubai, Sep 12: India\u2019s batting coach Sitanshu Kotak on Friday said the team\u2019s focus has solely been on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":133379,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[1721,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-133378","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cricket","8":"tag-cricket","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133378","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=133378"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133378\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/133379"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=133378"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=133378"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=133378"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}