Rohit Sharma won the crucial toss as India elected to bowl first against the United States of America in the 25th match of the ICC T20 World Cup 2024 on Wednesday, June 12. The USA missed out their skipper and star batter Monak Patel from their playing eleven while India fielded the same starting eleven.
Aaron Jones walked out for a toss ahead of Monak Patel in a surprise for the home fans. Rohit confirmed the same playing eleven for the third consecutive game leaving out the likes of Kuldeep Yadav and Sanju Samson to the bench.
"We will bowl first," Rohit said after winning the toss. "Pitch has played better in the last two games. You gotta understand what you need to do, assess conditions quickly. Gotta constantly get better in two games and continuing doing the good things that we have. Pitch will challenge in different ways. Same team."
Jones revealed a niggle behind Monak's surprise absence from the team. Shayan Jahangir came in for Monak while Shadley van Schalkwyk replaced pacer Nosthush Kenjige in two changes to the USA's playing eleven against India.
Monak's absence came as a big surprise for the fans after the batter's memorable fifty against Pakistan in their last match. Both the USA and India are chasing a Super 8 qualification entry in the last match at New York's Nassau County International Cricket Stadium.
"We would have bowled first as well, there's some help for the bowlers early," Aaron Jones said. "He's having a niggle and should be back quickly. It should be a good game and we're looking to play well. The camp is very positive, just looking to play some good cricket. Shayan Jahangir replaces Monank and Shadley is in for Nosthush."
India playing XI: Rohit Sharma (c), Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant (wk), Suryakumar Yadav, Shivam Dube, Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Jasprit Bumrah, Arshdeep Singh, Mohammed Siraj.
USA playing XI: Steven Taylor, Shayan Jahangir, Andries Gous (wk), Aaron Jones (c), Nitish Kumar, Corey Anderson, Harmeet Singh, Shadley van Schalkwyk, Jasdeep Singh, Saurabh Netravalkar, Ali Khan.
