News Sports Cricket T20 World Cup 2024: Pakistan keep Saim Ayub out, Imad Wasim rested for team's opener against USA

T20 World Cup 2024: Pakistan keep Saim Ayub out, Imad Wasim rested for team's opener against USA

T20 World Cup 2024: Pakistan open their T20 World Cup 2024 campaign against co-hosts USA at the Grand Prairie Stadium, Dallas. The Men in Green are going without Saim Ayub, who played in most of the T20Is for Pakistan before the showpiece tournament.

Babar Azam. Image Source : APBabar Azam.

T20 World Cup 2024: The Pakistan team are opening their T20 World Cup 2024 campaign against co-hosts USA at the Grand Prairie Stadium, Dallas on June 6, Thursday. The Men in Green have kept top-order batter Saim Ayub out despite playing him in several T20I games preceding this tournament.

The Men in Green are also going without Imad Wasim, who is out due to a side strain. USA captain Monank Patel won the toss and asked Pakistan to bat first. 

"We will bowl first. We have been playing on the same surface and chasing is easy on this ground, also it is better to know the target. It was a great game and we want to continue that momentum. It is a new challenge and we want to make sure we play our best cricket. One change for us," USA skipper Monank said at the toss.

Meanwhile, Babar also said that they would have bowled first too. "We would have also bowled first. It is a morning match, the pitch is fresh and we will look to put the runs on the board. Good to see sun is out, we haven't seen sunshine for the last 3-4 days. He (Imad) has an injury but we will cover it up by playing the four fast bowlers," Babar said at the toss.

USA's Playing XI:

Steven Taylor, Monank Patel (c & wk), Andries Gous, Aaron Jones, Nitish Kumar, Corey Anderson, Harmeet Singh, Jasdeep Singh, Nosthush Kenjige, Saurabh Netravalkar, Ali Khan

Pakistan's Playing XI:

Babar Azam (c), Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Usman Khan, Fakhar Zaman, Azam Khan, Iftikhar Ahmed, Shadab Khan, Shaheen Afridi, Naseem Shah, Mohammad Amir, Haris Rauf