T20 World Cup: Pakistan win toss, elect to bowl first against India

Dubai, Oct 24: Pakistan captain Babar Azam won the toss and elected to bowl first against India in a high-octane Group 2 match in Super 12 of the ICC Men's T20 World Cup at the Dubai International Stadium here on Sunday.

After winning the toss, Azam said that Haider Ali was left out from the 12-man shortlist for the playing eleven. "We'll look to take early wickets and put pressure. Dew is also a factor. We have had good practice sessions and are confident about our preparations. Pakistan's bowlers are known to trouble other teams but I am confident about our batting too."

India skipper Virat Kohli said Rahul Chahar, Ishan Kishan, Ravichandran Ashwin and Shardul Thakur are the four non-playing members of the squad. "We are 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 need to ensure we don't get too emotional. The pitch looks very different. Evenly rolled and there is no grass at all which was the case during the IPL. We expect the pitch to stay good all through and set a good total."

Playing XIs:

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

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