This marks the second meeting between the arch-rivals in the ongoing Asia Cup, with India having won the first encounter by seven wickets. With the backdrop of the much-talked-about ‘handshake row’, the contest is expected to be another fiery battle.
Asia Cup 2025:
India are aiming to extend their dominance over Pakistan, while the Men in Green will look to stage an upset.
For India, Jasprit Bumrah and Varun Chakravarthy return to the XI in place of Arshdeep Singh and Harshit Rana, who played in the Oman game.
At the toss, Suryakumar said: “We will bowl first. It looks like a nice track, and yesterday there was dew. Since the first round, we were thinking we were playing a knockout tournament; nothing changes. That was a completely different wicket (in Abu Dhabi). Quite normal, just another game. Bumrah and Varun come back for Arshdeep and Harshit.”
Pakistan made two changes, leaving out Khushdil Shah and Hasan Nawaz.
Skipper Salman Agha said: “We would have bowled first as well. It is a new game, new challenge. The mood is very normal. Pitch looks to be on the slower side. Want to start well with both bat and ball. Two changes. Hasan Nawaz and Khushdil Shah are not playing.”
Playing XIs:
India: Abhishek Sharma, Shubman Gill, Sanju Samson (wk), Suryakumar Yadav (c), Tilak Varma, Shivam Dube, Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, Jasprit Bumrah, Kuldeep Yadav, Varun Chakravarthy.
Pakistan: Saim Ayub, Sahibzada Farhan, Fakhar Zaman, Salman Agha (c), Hussain Talat, Mohammad Haris (wk), Mohammad Nawaz, Faheem Ashraf, Shaheen Afridi, Haris Rauf, Abrar Ahmed.
