Former Indian spinner Murali Kartik has urged India to include Arshdeep Singh in place of Shivam Dube in the high-octane clash against Pakistan in the ongoing Asia Cup. Arshdeep was surprisingly not picked by the team in the opening clash of the tournament against the UAE.

Dube, on the other hand, returned with impressive figures of 3-4 in the two overs he bowled and delivered the goods with the ball. India played with three spinners against the UAE and one genuine fast bowler in Jasprit Bumrah.

Meanwhile, Arshdeep is India’s most successful T20I bowler as he has scalped 99 wickets in his career and has performed consistently for the team.

Kartik said on Cricbuzz, “I will take Shivam Dube out to bring Arshdeep in. Because Axar gives you both, he can be the floater and play against seam-bowling as well. If you are keeping Shivam Dube to predominantly only play the spinners, then he is wasted. With Arshdeep, even though it’s one batter less, the responsibility goes up and you’ve got a quality bowling attack which is well-rounded.”

On the other hand, Suryakumar Yadav decided to field first after winning the toss against UAE. The home team was bundled out for 57 runs in 13.1 overs and then chase down the target in 4.3 overs. Kartik said Indian players didn’t wanted to be in the heat for too long.

“Sometimes as a team, you decide you don’t want to be out there in the heat for too long. You’ve got games coming. And if everyone is happy with their game and within the team if there is a unanimous decision, you go with that. You want to prepare for the way you want to play going forward. And India would have wanted to be ruthless and merciless against a team like the UAE and that’s exactly what they were,” said Kartik (via the aforementioned source).

India will next take on arch-rivals Pakistan at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium, Dubai on Sunday.