India bowl first in the 'clash of the continent'

India skipper Rohit Sharma won the toss and elected to field first in the all-important clash against Pakistan in Dubai, UAE. 

They have picked Dinesh Karthik over Rishabh Pant behind the stumps. Avesh Khan is picked as the third seamer over another spinning option.

"Having played here for a few years now, I thought having a score in front of us would be a good option. There is some grass covering and we want to exploit it. Rishabh Pant, unfortunately, misses out, we got out with Karthik. Avesh is the third seamer," Rohit said at the toss. 

Naseem Shah makes T20I debut for Pakistan. 

"We would have also been bowling first, but this is not in our hands. We will look to make a big score and see. Three fast bowlers, two spinners and a debut for Naseem Shah. There are a few new faces, and some old faces in that Indian team. We are trying to give it our best," Babar Azam said.

The IPL and the T20 World Cup were both held in the UAE last year in consecutive months and the trend that was set on all grounds was to win the toss, bowl first and win the match. 

Pakistan (Playing XI): Babar Azam(c), Mohammad Rizwan(w), Fakhar Zaman, Iftikhar Ahmed, Khushdil Shah, Asif Ali, Shadab Khan, Mohammad Nawaz, Naseem Shah, Haris Rauf, Shahnawaz Dahani
India (Playing XI): Rohit Sharma(c), KL Rahul, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Dinesh Karthik(w), Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Avesh Khan, Yuzvendra Chahal, Arshdeep Singh