IND vs PAK: It feels unreal, absolutely unreal, India taking on Pakistan on two consecutive Sundays, and when something like this happens, we already know that it either is an ICC event or the all-important Asia Cup. With Bangladesh and Hong Kong crashing out, Afghanistan, India, Sri Lanka, and Pakistan have all made it to the super 4 and will have a go at each other. Things have intensified at the Asia Cup with all 4 qualified teams displaying their best brand of cricket but this tournament is certainly a dress rehearsal for the T20I World Cup that is scheduled to be played in Australia later this year. India and Pakistan have qualified from Group A, whereas Sri Lanka and Afghanistan have qualified from Group B.
Earlier in the tournament, India did face Pakistan on August 28, 2022, and defeated them by a margin of 5 wickets. Babar Azam-led Pakistan had inflicted a 10-wicket loss over India in the 2021 T20I World Cup and it was now India's chance to redeem themselves and return the favor. The super 4 match between India and Pakistan is being played today at the Dubai International Stadium. Both the injury-plagued teams have a good headache going into the match. Pakistan has replaced Shahnawaz Dahani with Mohammad Hasnain and India has replaced the injured Ravindra Jadeja with Deepak Hooda who might walk ahead of Rishabh Pant.
Pakistan has won the toss and has invited the Rohit Sharma-led team India to bat first.
"We would have bowled first, but now we need to play freely and assess a good score on this pitch. Momentum counts in this format, you've to be on the money from the start, not worry about external pressures. Injury is something we can't control, Jadeja has been ruled out and he's back home. It was a headache to select the playing XI - Hardik comes back. Deepak Hooda gets a game and so does Ravi Bishnoi", said Rohit Shara ahead of the marquee clash.
"We will bowl first. The dew could be a factor, that's the reason we're bowling first. We had a lot of positives from the last match against India. The message is to play positively - one change for us with Hasnain coming in", said Babar Azam who will want to settle scores with the Indian cricket team.
India XI: KL Rahul, Rohit Sharma(c), Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant(w), Deepak Hooda, Hardik Pandya, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Ravi Bishnoi, Yuzvendra Chahal, Arshdeep Singh
Pakistan XI: Mohammad Rizwan(w), Babar Azam(c), Fakhar Zaman, Khushdil Shah, Iftikhar Ahmed, Shadab Khan, Asif Ali, Mohammad Nawaz, Haris Rauf, Mohammad Hasnain, Naseem Shah
