Dubai: Pakistan skipper Salman Ali Agha won the toss and chose to bat against India in the high-voltage Asia Cup clash in Dubai on Sunday.
Much has changed since the two arch-rivals last met in the 2024 T20 World Cup. Both sides have new coaches and fresh faces in their line-ups. Indian stalwarts Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli have retired, while Pakistan has moved past Mohammad Rizwan and Babar Azam. With the new mix of talent, several intriguing on-field battles are expected to spice up the contest.
India holds a dominant record over Pakistan in T20Is, leading the head-to-head tally 10–3. Both teams began their campaigns with wins and have retained the same XIs from their opening fixtures.
Explaining his decision at the toss, Pakistan captain Salman Agha said: “We’re batting first. We’ve been playing good cricket and are excited. The wicket looks slow, so we want to put runs on the board. Same side, we’ve been here for 20 days and are used to the conditions.”
India skipper Suryakumar Yadav was equally satisfied with bowling first: “We wanted to bowl, so happy with the toss result. We played one strip away, which was a nice wicket to bat on at night. It’s humid, so hopefully some dew comes in. Same team.”
Playing XIs:
Pakistan: Sahibzada Farhan, Saim Ayub, Mohammad Haris (wk), Fakhar Zaman, Salman Agha (c), Hasan Nawaz, Mohammad Nawaz, Faheem Ashraf, Shaheen Afridi, Sufiyan Muqeem, Abrar Ahmed.
India: Abhishek Sharma, Shubman Gill, Suryakumar Yadav (c), Tilak Varma, Sanju Samson (wk), Shivam Dube, Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Varun Chakaravarthy.
