India captain Shreyas Iyer has admitted that the team is under pressure owing to the Asian Games gold expectations, but is not bothered about the rain threat that’s hanging over their opening quarterfinal match against Afghanistan at Nisshin on Monday. India recently played a T20I game against Japan at Sano celebrating 75 years of diplomatic relations but due to rain, it became a five-overs contest, which the Indians won by two runs. The day before, they couldn’t get any practice for the same reason. The Karogi Athletic Park at Nisshin is no different. Even today, there was a torrential downpour affecting India’s practice session not a little. Be that as it may, Iyer is not perturbed, saying that as a professional side, they were not supposed to think about such matters too much.
“We have decided that we are a bunch of professionals. And such hurdles will keep coming. And mentally, we have to be prepared, irrespective of whatever the situation is going to be. So, we got a decent warm-up and a little practice of knocking. And tomorrow, we will try to adapt as soon as possible to the wicket. We will see how the weather is. But that is secondary. The primary importance is to come and play the match,” he said.
India recently played three T20Is against the Afghans and won all three contests comfortably in New Delhi. Once again, they go into the match with the favourites tag. However, Iyer refused to take the opposition lightly. “We can’t take any team in the Asian Games lightly. Not just Afghanistan, any team in the Asian Games, like Japan gave us very good competition. Because the wicket here cannot be set to a particular standard. But as I said earlier, it is very important to adapt. It will be challenging and difficult for every team. So, whichever team plays well [they will win], we will definitely go into the match with that mindset.”
Iyer admitted that the team was under pressure to win gold at the event; however, it was not detrimental in any way. “See, when you represent India, there are always expectations that you have to finish at the top. And that is good pressure. When there are expectations, you want to deliver. But at the same time, I feel that we should not think much about the outcome. And we have set a standard as a team. We keep trying to transcend that standard in every match,” he said.
Iyer also expressed his disappointment that the team wanted to see India’s teenage star Anahat Singh in squash action on Sunday but because of their practice session, they couldn’t do so. “Like today, we know that an 18-year-old prodigy is playing a squash game. So, we wanted to see that. But due to practice, we couldn’t go. But definitely, our support is for every individual who is representing the country. And we will win as many gold medals as possible. We will try our best,” he said.
It may be noted that if it’s a washout tomorrow, India advance to the semis on account of their better ranking.
