Asia Cup 2022, India vs Pakistan: Rahul Dravid ups the ante, says team isn't here just to prepare for T20 World Cup

Rahul Dravid paused, scratched his head and then continued with an awkward smile: "The word is coming out of my mind but I can't use it here. It's a four-letter word that starts with 'S'. Let's say (we) might not look (as) glamorous." The press conference room broke into laughter. Dravid was responding to a journalist's suggestion that Pakistan may have a much more potent bowling attack than India. Team India's head coach wasn't going to just let that pass on the eve of India's second match against Pakistan in this tournament on Saturday.

The heatwave seemed to be back here in Dubai on Saturday, and Dravid too turned up the heat a notch. For the past 10 days, people have been craving for a bit of spice from either camp in this usually animated rivalry. Few would have guessed that it would eventually come from the politically correct Dravid. "I agree that they bowled pretty well in the last match. But we also did restrict them to 147. We may see that few of them bowled at 145 or 147 kmph but at the end of the day, bowling analysis is the most important thing. You are judged by the results. Bowling analysis of our bowlers was also pretty good," Dravid declared. "Our batters like Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli have scored heavily against Pakistan in big tournaments and matches."

Dravid was simply putting up an aggressive front for his team. Much of the hype around this Asia Cup has been centred around how Dravid and captain Rohit Sharma are using this tournament as a pit stop ahead of the T20 World Cup in Australia in October. Every team that has been picked and every XI that India have fielded over the last few weeks have been seen as an indication of India's approach towards that World Cup. That captain Rohit had declared