Consistency in team selection has started paying dividends for India, star batsman Rohit Sharma said ahead of his side’s crunch contest against Pakistan on Saturday.

India have refrained from tinkering with their Twenty20 squad and have reaped the rewards with wins over Australia and Sri Lanka in recent back-to-back series.

They carried their success in the Asia Cup opener against Bangladesh this week, registering a crushing 45-run win to give themselves a perfect boost before the match against arch-rivals Pakistan.

“If any individual knows he has the backing of the team, that’s when he opens up and expresses himself better, gets the performance going,” Sharma said. “For us also, we have been playing with the squad for a while which shows that we have a good bunch (of cricketers) who at any point are ready to take the challenge.

“That’s a good sign and we are very proud of that. It’s a good sign going to the World (T20) Cup.”

India will start again as favourites, but Sharma has chosen to be cautious, especially given the threat of Pakistan’s bowling department.

“Pakistan have a formidable bowling attack, no doubt,” added Sharma, who top-scored with a quickfire 83 off 55 balls against Bangladesh. “But we would want to concentrate more on our strengths and prepare our plans accordingly. Our strength is batting and depending on the wicket we will have to focus on that.”

Pakistan captain Shahid Afridi said he hoped that his team would be able to give India a competitive match after their players had some useful practice in the recently concluded Pakistan Super League in the UAE.

India have defeated Pakistan in all but one of their previous T20 internationals but Afridi said: “I am not thinking what we have done against India in the past because I don’t live in the past.”