Pakistan captain Babar Azam won the toss and elected to bowl in the big match against India in Dubai as both teams look to get off to a winning start in the Super 12 stage of the ICC T20 World Cup. Indian captain Virat Kohli admitted that he would have bowled first too had he won the toss but was confident about setting a target. India are going into the match with two spin bowling options in Ravindra Jadeja and Varun Chakaravarthy, which means the experienced Ravichandran Ashwin will miss out. Hardik Pandya has been included in the playing XI too and he is expected to be tasked with the job of finishing the innings.
"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," Kohli said at the toss.
Talking about the hype surrounding the match, Kohli said that the players try not to get emotionally involved and take a professional approach to a big game like this.
"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. The pitch 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. The four not playing are: Rahul Chahar, Ishan Kishan, Ashwin and Thakur," the Indian captain added.
Pakistan captain Babar Azam said that he was confident about the bowling as well as the batting might of his team.
"We are going to bowl first. 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. Haider Ali is left out," Babar said.
India Playing XI vs Pakistan: Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul, Virat Kohli(c), Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant(w), Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohammed Shami, Varun Chakaravarthy, Jasprit Bumrah
Pakistan Playing XI vs India: Babar Azam(c), Mohammad Rizwan(w), Fakhar Zaman, Mohammad Hafeez, Shoaib Malik, Asif Ali, Imad Wasim, Shadab Khan, Hasan Ali, Haris Rauf, Shaheen Afridi