If you're thinking India will win the Asia Cup easily, think again

Winning the Asia Cup won't be easy for India, to say the least. After successive ODI and Test series defeats in England, the fans would be hoping for a sigh of relief with a relatively-easy looking Asia Cup to follow in less than ten days' time. But if you are one who has already taken an Asia Cup victory as a given, it's time you wake up from your sleep.

The traditional reasons why the Asia Cup is appearing way easier than the England tour are familiar conditions, easier oppositions and the expertise of our players. But things are not as good as they appear from a distance. Just have a close look and things will look gloomy.

Batting

While the batting appears the strongest department, India have had their fair share of struggle against different types of bowlers. While the bouncer should not be too much of an issue, left arm bowling is not something Indians have looked comfortable against - and Mustafizur Rehman and Mohammad Amir will pose a challenge. While possessing good wrist spinners themselves, Indians haven't necessarily been the best players of wrist spin, and have struggled against the likes of Akila Dananjaya as well as Rashid Khan. The importance of bowlers like Hassan Ali can also not be ruled out, as he proved in Champions Trophy 2017.

Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan need to be consistent throughout - rather than scoring a hundred or two and then faltering in the important games. The middle order will hold the key, and India cannot think of winning any game without scoring 250 or more. Finishers like Dhoni and Pandya need to know when to attack and control the run rate accordingly.

Bowling

In India's last ODI tournament against England, the team just could not find a way to pick wickets besides Kuldeep Yadav. In the three-match ODI series, the next best bowler after Kuldeep's nine wickets was Yuzvendra Chahal. The next best bowler was Umesh Yadav, with three wickets at 44.33. The conditions in the ODI series were quite similar to those in India, and Umesh Yadav has been left out of the Asia Cup squad.

Manufacturing wickets is an important factor in ODI's. Although the Indian seamers have been sensational in the Test series in England, none of them - except Jasprit Bumrah - has been selected for the Asia Cup. Bhuvneshwar Kumar's fitness has to be seen to be believed - but anyways he doesn't have a fantastic record on flat tracks.

India's best chance of picking wickets are in the opening overs, and the only bowler capable of picking wickets in the middle overs is Kuldeep Yadav. Unless India find a way to pick wickets at regular intervals, they will depend heavily on the batting.

Conditions

The last time the senior Indian team played a multilateral tournament in the UAE was 18 years ago in Sharjah, and the team does not know the conditions yet. Their seniors will tell them that UAE is hot, sometimes humid and the wickets are similar to the subcontinent. But we have witnessed mostly low scoring ODIs in that part of the world due to the slow nature of the wickets. And without actually having played there, the players won't instantly know how to adapt.

With UAE being their base for the last ten years, Pakistan would know the conditions better than others. Sri Lanka, who lost all the five ODIs here against Pakistan a year ago, should have learnt their lessons too.

Oppositions

Pakistan have entered one of their best phases in this century in the last two years. A Champion's Trophy victory last year, along with multiple Test match and T20I victories in UAE and overseas makes Pakistan favorites for this tournament.

Bangladesh has very narrowly missed out on three multilateral tournament victories in the last six years - in the 2012 Asia Cup Final, the 2016 Asia Cup T20 Final and this year's Nidahas Trophy final. Bangladesh doing well in this tournament should not come across as a surprise either.

Sri Lanka won their last three limited over games against South Africa, and are trying to build a formidable team in time before next year's World Cup, and can spring a surprise or two like they did in last year's Champions Trophy against India. Afghanistan has the ability to surprise and are growing at a rate as good as any new cricket entrant ever. Hong Kong has reached here after winning a tough qualifying tournament, and have the winning momentum - and that too in these conditions.

That said, India does have a strong chance, provided they keep their eyes open and take the right decisions. They need to be serious and can take inspiration from Pakistan's captain Sarfraz Ahmed. Confidence will be key, but overconfidence would certainly get the better of any team - India coming first.