UAE captain Muhammad Waseem isn't dwelling on the narrative of their Asia Cup campaign opener against India on Wednesday being a showpiece clash. The hosts are looking to keep things simple, stick to their plan and cash in when they feel the moment is right.
UAE is making steady inroads to become one of the top sides in Asia, much like Afghanistan, which has earned a reputation as one of the bigwigs in the subcontinent, capable of challenging the best.
Waseem said they won't treat the match against T20 World champions India as a big game and will look to play normally.
"We will not take it as a big match because all the teams are good in front of you, so all the matches will be the same. We are working hard in the heat, and we will only follow our plan. Whatever we have learned and whatever we need to do on that day, we will do it. Rest, the result is up to the game," he told ANI.
Waseem is not a big fan of the idea of making individual plans for the Indian players.
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"No, we have not made any individual plan for any particular player. We have created a plan for 6-7 batters for the whole team. We will not give their strength to the strength. We will play carefully with their wicket-taker bowler, and whoever we can charge, we have made such a plan. If the unit is more, the role of the spinners can increase," he added.
India has plenty of talented spinners in its pool, including Kuldeep Yadav, Varun Chakravarthy and Axar Patel. Waseem believes that if the dew factor comes into play, it would be easy to negate the threat posed by the ball tweakers.
"Whenever there is dew, I think the spinner's ball doesn't turn much. But it depends on the weather tomorrow and the conditions. And as I have told you, whatever we have learned. Yes, you are right that we play a lot of cricket here. We can also say that India and Pakistan play a lot of cricket here. But it is our home. So we will try our best to take advantage of and play good cricket," he said.
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