India vs Pakistan Squads: India Playing Hardik Pandya, Pak Leave Out Haider Ali
2021 T20 World Cup: Pakistan have elected to bowl first in the match against India.
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The India vs Pakistan 2021 T20 World Cup match is now underway with Babar Azam winning the toss and electing to bowl first in Dubai.
India have Hardik Pandya in the playing XI with Ishan Kishan, R Ashwin, Shardul Thakur and Rahul Chahar not playing.
"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," Virat at the toss.
Pakistan had named their 12 on the eve of the match and skipper Babar says they have left out Haider Ali tonight.
"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," Azam said.
India last played Pakistan in a bilateral series in 2013 and the teams now meet only in global tournaments. The two teams last met in the group stages of the 2019 ICC Cricket World Cup, with India convincingly defeating the old rivals to maintain their undefeated streak in World Cups.
The two arch-rivals have met each other five times at a T20 World Cup and 'Men in Blue' have won on all the occasions.
Both teams come into the match with decent practice under their belt, having played two warm-up matches each. Pakistan beat West Indies by seven wickets in their first match before losing to South Africa off the last ball, in the second. India, the 2007 champions, on the other hand, won both their warm-up matches, beating England and Australia.
India XI vs Pakistan
KL Rahul, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli (capt), Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant (wk), Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Varun Chakravarthy, Mohammed Shami, Jasprit Bumrah
Pakistan XI vs India
Babar Azam (capt), Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Fakhar Zaman, Mohammad Hafeez, Shoaib Malik, Asif Ali, Shadab Khan, Imad Wasim, Hasan Ali, Haris Rauf, Shaheen Shah Afridi
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