Manchester: Pakistan captain Sarfaraz Ahmed won the toss and asked India to bat first in their World Cup group stage encounter at the Old Trafford on Sunday.
India brought in Vijay Shankar for the injured Shikhar Dhawan, while Pakistan have brought back spinners Shadab Khan and Imad Wasim in place of Shaheen Afridi and Asif Ali.
“We will bowl first. It has been raining, so the conditions are good for bowling. We have quality spinners and we backed them today. We are not thinking about 6-0,” Sarfaraz said at the toss, referring to India’s unbeaten record against Pakistan at the World Cup.
Virat Kohli said: “We would have bowled first, to be honest. The wicket looks really nice though and we have two wrist spinners in our team. We will be in good stead if we bat well. We have been playing good cricket, and we don’t want to tinker with the team combination. We have one forced change, Shikhar misses out and Vijay Shankar comes in his place. He is a solid batsman, brilliant in field and gives us few overs too.”
Teams: India (Playing XI): Rohit Sharma, Lokesh Rahul, Virat Kohli (c), Vijay Shankar, Mahendra Singh Dhoni (wk), Kedar Jadhav, Hardik Pandya, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Jasprit Bumrah
Pakistan (Playing XI): Imam-ul-Haq, Fakhar Zaman, Babar Azam, Mohammad Hafeez, Sarfaraz Ahmed (wk/c), Shoaib Malik, Imad Wasim, Shadab Khan, Hasan Ali, Wahab Riaz, Mohammad Amir
