T20 World Cup: Skipper Rohit says India relishing Pakistan 'challenge'

Skipper Rohit Sharma said on Saturday that his India team are relishing the "challenge" of facing arch-rivals Pakistan in their opening match of the Twenty20 World Cup.

The neighbours meet on Sunday at a packed Melbourne Cricket Ground and with cricket administrators of the countries bickering behind the scenes.

"I don't want to use the word 'pressure' because pressure is constant, I would like to take this as a challenge," Rohit told reporters on the eve of the blockbuster clash.

"This Pakistani team is a very challenging team."

India have usually dominated Pakistan on the cricket field since the late 1990s but have lost two of their three previous matches including last year's T20 World Cup group game in the UAE.

India, ranked No.1 in the T20 format, have also not lifted a world title since the 2013 Champions Trophy and missed the final of the recent Asia Cup despite being favourites.

"Pakistan were good on the day of the T20 World Cup match (in 2021). They were also good at the Asia Cup. Luckily for us, we got to play them twice at the Asia Cup, we don't get to play them a lot," said Rohit.

"We got to gauge them, their strengths, weaknesses."

"It's there at the back of our players' mind (not winning an international event for nine years), but it's important to just keep that away and just focus on the job at hand," Rohit added.

"It's my personal belief that if you think too much of the past, I think you won't be able to focus on the present."

India and Pakistan are in Group 2 with Bangladesh, South Africa, Zimbabwe and the Netherlands. The top two progress into the semi-finals in Australia.