India v Hong Kong Asia Cup Tips: Rohit and Rahul to the fore

India v Hong Kong
Wednesday 31 August, 15:00
TV: Live on Sky 717

Team news

India are giving themselves a hearty slap on the back after beating Pakistan. Yes, well done lads. You won at a ground with a toss bias which now stands at 14/15 in favour of the chaser.

Still, they did manage to come from behind to do so. Virat Kohli's stinker of an innings is being wrongly portrayed as a masterclass in tricky conditions. A strike rate of 100 almost always puts your team in the brown stuff. Hardik Pandya had to strike at 194 to win it.

Kohli's position is untouchable, even if it means that him playing keeps Rishabh Pant out of the side. India may win this tournament with Kohli at No 3 but we'd be surprised if they win any more.

Probable XI: Rohit, Rahul, Kohli, Yadav, Jadeja, Hardik, Karthik, Kumar, Chahal, Avesh, Arshdeep

Hong Kong are reliant on Ehsan Khan, the 37-year-old spinner, and skipper Nizakat Khan. They top bowling and batting lists respectively. Look out for Babar Hayat, who is striking at 134 in the last two years.

Unfortunately, there is zero form to go on against the best sides. Hong Kong have never played an established nation in T20. They last played a side of note Afghanistan - six years ago when, er, Afghanistan weren't a side of note.

Possible XI: Nizakata, Mursama, Hayata, Kinchit, Aizaz, McKechnie, Ehsan, Shukla, Zeeshan, Mohammad Ghazanfar

Pitch report

Pakistan laboured to 148 in their defeat by India. Despite claims to the contrary, it was a wicket entirely in keeping with what we saw in the World T20. Only three of the last 15 first-innings have seen first-innings scores of 160 or more. Hong Kong didn't concede more than 150 in qualifying for this tournament.

So the gamble could be on their bowling - untested against the best caveat - keeping India relatively quiet. Under 170 perhaps at short lays if India bat first? Bet the market here.

How to play

India are 1.011/100 already. So the natural reaction is to look to trade Hong Kong with that toss bias on side. The problem is that HK will get bigger and bigger very quickly indeed. At the break you could be looking at closer to 71.070/1 so there's nowt shrewd to play. Realistically if HK bowl first you're looking at two cheap wickets very quickly to get that price down. The match odds are here.

Tops value

Top India bat and top match bat are surely one and the same. So there could be value with Sportsbook odds when they appear with Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul to cop on the latter in making the most of the opening berths and powerplay. They could be around 10/3 and 4/1 on the latter.

For top Hong Kong bat the temptation will be to look for a player capable of 20 or 30 to win at big numbers. Haroon Arshad could be that man. He has a fearful strike rate in the last two years and we'd hope for 33s or better. And we will have to be strict on that.

We're not playing at 16s for example. He may not play but money back if not. Bet the Sportsbook markets here.

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