Indian cricket team has been off to a great start against Pakistan in the Asia Cup 2023 Super 4 match on Sunday, September 9. Indian openers Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill lost their wickets after brilliant fifties but KL Rahul and Virat Kohli kept the pressure on Pakistan with a sensible stand for the third wicket.
KL Rahul, returning after a gap of four months, replaced Shreyas Iyer in the playing eleven in a crucial game. He started confidently with some impressive shots and recorded a big milestone after reaching 14 runs with a cracking four off Haris Rauf. With a four Rahul became India's joint fourth-fastest to 2,000 runs in ODIs.
Rahul reached the 2000-run mark in just 53 innings and levelled up with Virat Kohli in this record. Kohli also took only 53 innings to record 2,000 runs in ODIs but three more Indians were quicker than both Virat and Rahul to achieve this feat. The veteran opener Shikhar Dhawan remains India's fastest to 2,000 runs where he took only 48 innings while the former captain Sourav Ganguly and Navjot Sidhu reached this feat in 52 innings.
Meanwhile, Indian captain Rohit Shamra scored 56 off 49 balls as missed out on his 10,000 ODI runs milestone. Shubman Gill also recorded another brilliant fifty to give India a flying start today. The duo added 121 runs for the opening wickets in just 100 balls played together. Pakistan balanced the game with Rohit and Gill's wickets in back-to-back overs but Shubman Gill and Virat Kohli stabilized the wickets fall with unbeaten 24* runs for the third wicket before the rain interruption in the 25th over.
India Playing XI: Rohit Sharma (c), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, KL Rahul, Ishan Kishan (wk), Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj
Pakistan Playing XI: Fakhar Zaman, Imam-ul-Haq, Babar Azam (c), Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Agha Salman, Iftikhar Ahmed, Shadab Khan, Faheem Ashraf, Shaheen Afridi, Naseem Shah, Haris Rauf
