Asia Cup: Pakistan wins toss, opts to bowl first against India

Colombo: Pakistan captain Babar Azam won the toss and opted to bowl first against India in their Asia Cup Super 4 match here on Sunday.

Pakistan is playing an unchanged side while India made two changes to the playing XI.

In a forced change, batter KL Rahul returned to the Indian team after a long injury layoff in place of Shreyas Iyer, who is down with back spasm, while Jasprit Bumrah is back to lead the pace attack.

Iyer had made a comeback from a back surgery in India’s Asia Cup opener on September 2. It was his first competitive game in close to six months.

“Shreyas Iyer had a back spasm during warm-up today,” read a BCCI update.

Iyer’s unavailability allowed India to accommodate a fit again K L Rahul, who last played in the IPL before undergoing a thigh surgery.

Both Iyer and Rahul have also been named in India’s World Cup squad but questions marks remain over their match fitness as they are back after a long injury lay-off.

Teams

India: Rohit Sharma (capt), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, KL Rahul, Ishan Kishan (wk), Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj.

Pakistan: Fakhar Zaman, Imam-ul-Haq, Babar Azam (capt), Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Agha Salman, Iftikhar Ahmed, Shadab Khan, Faheem Ashraf, Shaheen Afridi, Naseem Shah, Haris Rauf.