India opt to bowl first in marquee Pakistan clash
"Looks like a good pitch, a bit of grass, and it's a little overcast, so the ball might swing around a little bit, so we'll try and use that to our advantage," Rohit said at the toss.
India captain Rohit Sharma won the toss and elected to bowl first in the marquee clash against Pakistan at the majestic MCG.
"Looks like a good pitch, a bit of grass, and it's a little overcast, so the ball might swing around a little bit, so we'll try and use that to our advantage," Rohit said at the toss.
"Very much sorted with our preparation now. It's time to come out and enjoy ourselves."
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India are playing with seven batters, an allrounder, three seamers and two spinners.
Babar Azam said they wanted to bowl first as well. They are playing three fast bowlers and two spinners.
The pitch has some nice covering of grass, it is rock-hard. A good batting wicket, overall. There will definitely be some pace and bounce on offer.
The last time India and Pakistan faced each other in the T20 World Cup, Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan forged an iconic partnership to script a magnificent 10-wicket win. The last time the two teams faced each other in T20Is, Rizwan and Mohammad Nawaz powered Pakistan past India.
Although Pakistan have an upper hand in terms of recent results, it's India who have a better record in Australia and interestingly, Pakistan are yet to win a T20I down-under.
Pakistan: 1 Mohammad Rizwan, 2 Babar Azam, 3 Shan Masood, 4 Shadab Khan, 5 Haider Ali, 6 Iftikhar Ahmed, 7 Mohammad Nawaz, 8 Asif Ali, 9 Shaheen Shah Afridi, 10 Naseem Shah, 11 Haris Rauf.
India: 1 Rohit Sharma, 2 KL Rahul, 3 Virat Kohli, 4 Suryakumar Yadav, 5 Hardik Pandya, 6 Dinesh Karthik, 7 Axar Patel, 8 R Ashwin, 9 Mohammed Shami, 10 Bhuvneshwar Kumar, 11 Arshdeep Singh.
