Asia Cup 2023: Rohit Sharma plays down the clamour; leaves the ball at BCCI's court of Pakistan visit

Melbourne, October 22: Even amidst the adrenaline rush of India’s imminent ICC T20 World Cup 2022 campaign against Pakistan, the question of India’s possible trip to Pakistan for the Asia Cup 2023.

BCCI secretary Jay Shah, who in his capacity as the ACC President, had stated that India will not travel to Pakistan for the Asia Cup 2023, and since then the statement has created such a furore in both the nations, and in cricketing circles in general.

It had its resonance at the distant Melbourne too when the question was posed to India skipper Rohit Sharma asking for his response to Shah’s remark.

Rohit played the tricky ball with a dead bat. “My take is let's focus on this World Cup because this is important for us. We're not worried about what is going to happen later.

There's no point in thinking about it. The BCCI will make the decisions on that. We are focused on how we need to be very well prepared for tomorrow's game,” said Rohit during the pre-match press meet.

The statement of Rohit incidentally aligned with the stand taken by the newly-appointed BCCI President Roger Binny, who replaced Sourav Ganguly at the board’s helm.

“That is not BCCI's call. We need government's clearance to leave the country. Whether we leave the country or teams coming into the country, we need clearance.

Once we get clearance from the government then we go with it. We can't make decision on our own. We have to rely on the government. We have not approached them yet,” said World Cup winner Binny in Bangalore recently.

Pakistan Cricket Board through its Chairman Ramiz Raja had strongly reacted to Jay Shah's statement and said such actions will have serious repurcussions, while seeking for an urgent meeting oft the Asian Cricket Council to discuss the matter.

Pakistan said they could pull out from the ICC 50-over World Cup 2023, which is slated to be held in India a year down the line.