India skipper Rohit Sharma played down the talk of rivalry between his team and Pakistan, addressing the media ahead of the Asia Cup 2023 opener for the men in blues.

India are set to clash against Pakistan in their first match of Asia Cup 2023 on Saturday in Pallekele. Rohit said that while the rivalry makes this a highly anticipated contest, for team India this is just another opponent.

"There are six very competitive teams in the Asia Cup and on a given day anyone can beat anyone," the captain said at the press conference ahead of the encounter.

"Rivalry is there for people to talk about. As a team, what we see is we have an opposition to play tomorrow and see what we want to do. What is going to help us is to keep doing the right things on the field."

Pakistan recently rose to No.1 in the MRF Tyres ICC Men's ODI Team Rankings and the Indian skipper acknowledged the opposition's good form heading into this tournament.

"Pakistan have played really well in recent times in both T20Is and ODIs. They worked really hard to be No.1 and it'll be a good challenge for us tomorrow," he added.

The match is scheduled to begin at 3 pm IST.