Pakistan skipper Babar Azam won the toss and elected to bat in the World Cup clash against Afghanistan on Monday at the MA Chidambaram Stadium.
Both teams have entered the territory of must-win games and will be looking to walk away with two points at all costs. Afghanistan have only won one game in the first four matches while Pakistan have won two out of their first four matches.
Pakistan skipper Babar Azam said at the time of the toss, “We will bat first. The pitch looks very dry and might spin. We have one change, unfortunately Nawaz has fever and Shadab is back. We will have to give our 100% in every match and step-up, that’s what I want from my players. The pitch might help the pacers under lights.”
Afghanistan skipper Hashmatullah Shahidi said at the time of toss, “We wanted to bat first, but the toss is not in your hand. One change for us – Noor Ahmad is in for Fazalhaq Farooqi. We played a series against them in Sri Lanka and we wanted more spinning options. We want to restrict them to 250 or less.”
Pakistan (Playing XI): Abdullah Shafique, Imam-ul-Haq, Babar Azam(c), Mohammad Rizwan(w), Saud Shakeel, Iftikhar Ahmed, Shadab Khan, Usama Mir, Shaheen Afridi, Hasan Ali, Haris Rauf
Afghanistan (Playing XI): Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Ibrahim Zadran, Rahmat Shah, Hashmatullah Shahidi(c), Azmatullah Omarzai, Ikram Alikhil(w), Mohammad Nabi, Rashid Khan, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Naveen-ul-Haq, Noor Ahmad. (ANI)
