Pakistan skipper Mohammed Rizwan won the toss and elected to bat first against arch-rivals India in their second clash of Group A at the Dubai International Stadium on Sunday.
Team India will lock horns against arch-rivals Pakistan in their second Group A clash at the Dubai International Stadium today in order to book their spot in the semifinals of the ongoing competition.
The last time India and Pakistan clashed in a Champions Trophy event was during the 2017 edition’s final, when Virat Kohli-led star-studded unit was humbled by Men in Green at the peak of star batters’ run-chasing powers, being skittled out for 158 runs while chasing a mammoth 338 runs which Pakistan reached on the back of a century from Fakhar Zaman.
Avenging this would be fresh on the minds of players who were part of this heart-wrenching defeat, and their fans would no doubt relish every moment of India dominating Pakistan with bat or ball.
“Will bat first, looks like a good surface. Want to put up a good target. Every match is important in ICC events, we will keep things normal. The boys are familiar with these conditions, we have done well here and we want to do our best today. We lost our last game, but it is past for us now. One change – Fakhar is out, Imam is in,” Rizwan said after winning the toss.
Men in Blue skipper Rohit Sharma said that there is no change in the team for this match.
“Doesn’t really matter, they won the toss so we’ll bowl first. Looks similar to the last game, the surface is on the slower side. We have an experienced unit in batting, so we know what we need to do if the pitches get slower. Need an overall performance from the team – with bat and ball. The last game wasn’t an easy one for us, which is always nice. You want to be under pressure and test yourself. We are playing the same team,” Rohit said.
Teams:
India (Playing XI): Rohit Sharma (c), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Axar Patel, KL Rahul (wk), Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Harshit Rana, Mohammed Shami, Kuldeep Yadav
Pakistan (Playing XI): Imam-ul-Haq, Babar Azam, Saud Shakeel, Mohammad Rizwan (wk/c), Salman Agha, Tayyab Tahir, Khushdil Shah, Shaheen Afridi, Naseem Shah, Haris Rauf, Abrar Ahmed. (ANI)
