Pakistan’s wicketkeeper-batter Mohammad Rizwan on Saturday said that the hype around the India-Pakistan match is created by social media and fans.

Pakistan will open their T20 World Cup campaign against India on October 24.

“This India-Pakistan match, we will consider it like any other game. The hype is being created by the social media and fans, which is fine, but in our hearts and minds, we will consider this game the same as one against any other side. Because, if we as players take on the additional pressure of this game, then that won’t be as good as it has happened before,” said Rizwan during a virtual press conference.

Rizwan also ruled out the fact that playing in the UAE will give Pakistan an upper hand as they have played a lot of cricket on UAE soil.

“I have never been a believer in the fact that any one side, including Pakistan, has any special advantage in UAE or anywhere else,” he said.

“All we can say is that the tournament is being held in Asia as I consider the UAE to be in Asia.”

“Yes, we have been playing there for a while and we used to say that UAE is our home ground but I never accepted that because the pitches there, from what I understood, were made with soil from Australia or from other parts of the world,” he added.

“So, even if UAE was called our home ground, that was not the case,” he signed off.