Harmanpreet Kaur plays down the Pakistan match as India chase form at the Asia Cup

India's captain says the pressure of playing Pakistan is unlike anything else in the game, and then declines to build her tournament around it
India meet Pakistan at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium on Saturday in a Group A match at the Women's Asia Cup, and Harmanpreet Kaur has spent the build-up doing two things at once: describing exactly how large the fixture is, and refusing to let it become the point of her team's tournament.
"The amount of pressure in an India vs Pakistan match—that kind of pressure you don't feel anywhere else," she said. "Every Indian is watching, not only cricket fans but every Indian is watching because that match is so important for all of us."
Asked before the tournament began whether the fixture was the one India were building towards, she gave the opposite answer. "We aren't focusing on one team, as it will make it tough for all of us," she said. "All the sides are doing well, and our focus will be to play good cricket and not to take any team lightly."

A tournament India arrive at under pressure
The caution is not misplaced. India came into this Asia Cup after a first-round exit at the 2026 Women's T20 World Cup, where defeats to Australia and South Africa ended their campaign before the knockout stage.
That is the context in which a group match against Pakistan becomes something more than a group match, and it is also the reason Harmanpreet has been steering attention towards the other two fixtures on India's schedule rather than the one everybody has circled.

India's group so far
India opened with a 94-run win over Thailand on August 30, and play Hong Kong China on September 3 before the Pakistan match two days later. Group A is completed by those same four teams, with the top two from each group going through to the semi-finals.
Thailand had already shown they are not a formality. They beat Hong Kong China by six runs in the tournament's opening match on August 28, defending 120 for 9 after Hong Kong finished on 114 for 7.

Pakistan get their win on the board
Pakistan arrive at Saturday's match having beaten Thailand by 35 runs in Dubai on Tuesday. They batted first and were held to 119 for 9 from their 20 overs, a total that looked light until Thailand were restricted to 84 for 8 in reply.
It was not a fluent performance with the bat, but it was a comfortable one with the ball, and it means Pakistan go into the India match with points already banked rather than needing them.

The squad Harmanpreet is working with
India named a 15-player squad for the tournament with Smriti Mandhana as vice-captain, and it includes Shafali Verma, Pratika Rawal, Bharti Fulmali, Deepti Sharma, Arundhati Reddy and Richa Ghosh.
Deepti Sharma has already had a tournament worth remembering, having become the leading wicket-taker in women's Twenty20 internationals. India's difficulty at the World Cup was with the bat rather than the ball, and the batting order is where Saturday will be decided.

Keeping it simple
Harmanpreet's own method for the occasion is deliberately unremarkable. "As a captain and as a player, I try to keep things very simple, very easy," she said, which is a way of saying that the plan for Pakistan is the plan for Hong Kong China two days earlier.
She has also spoken about the pull of the Asian Games, where players compete for individual medals rather than a single trophy, and where the motivation is different from an ICC tournament. That event follows later in September.
India play Hong Kong China on Thursday and Pakistan on Saturday, both in Dubai.

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