IND vs PAK: R Ashwin, Shardul Thakur, Ishan Kishan left out; Varun Chakravarthy, Suryakumar Yadav in

IND vs PAK: R Ashwin, Shardul Thakur, Ishan Kishan left out; Varun Chakravarthy, Suryakumar Yadav in

FPJ Web DeskUpdated: Sunday, October 24, 2021, 08:59 PM IST
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Indias captain Virat Kohli (C) smiles as he warms up with his teammates before the start of the ICC men?s Twenty20 World Cup cricket match between India and Pakistan at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium in Dubai on October 24, 2021. | (Photo by Aamir QURESHI / AFP)

India has left out R Ashwin, Shardul Thakur, Ishan Kisan for the marquee clash against Pakistan in their opening game of the ICC Men's T20 World Cup 2021 in Dubai on Sunday. Meanwhile, Varun Chakravarthy and Suryakumar Yadav have made it to the Virat Kohli-led side.

Pakistan skipper Babar Azam has won the toss and elected to bowl first.

Speaking at the toss, the Indian skipper said he is pretty happy with setting the target. "We would have bowled first too, but the toss is not in your control. We are pretty balanced with our squad and you need to be prepared for it. We need to stay as professional as possible. We need to stay focussed on the processes. Everyone watches it closely all over the world. We can use that as a motivation, but we need to ensure we don't get too emotional and need to just stay professional," he said.

Regarding the pitch, Kohli said it looks very different. "Evenly rolled and there is no grass at all which was the case during the IPL, and I'm sure that was done to hold it together well for the World Cup. We expect the pitch to stay good all through and set a good total," he added.

On the other hand, Pakistan has left out Haider Ali.

"We'll look to take early wickets and put pressure. Dew is also a factor. We have had good practice sessions and am confident about our preparations. Pakistan's bowlers are known to trouble other teams but I am confident about our batting too," said Babar Azam.

Playing XIs

India: Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul, Virat Kohli (c), Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant (wk), Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohammed Shami, Varun Chakravarthy, Jasprit Bumrah

Pakistan: Babar Azam (c), Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Fakhar Zaman, Mohammad Hafeez, Shoaib Malik, Asif Ali, Imad Wasim, Shadab Khan, Hasan Ali, Haris Rauf, Shaheen Afridi

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