Asia Cup 2022: Rohit wins toss, India opt to bowl against Pakistan

Indian captain Rohit Sharma won the toss and elected to bowl against Pakistan in their opening match of the Asia Cup at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium on Sunday.

India picked Dinesh Karthik ahead of Rishabh Pant as the wicketkeeper in the side. Veteran spinner R Ashwin, Ravi Bishnoi and Deepak Hooda were left out.

Meanwhile, young and exciting pacer Naseem Shah will make his T20I debut for Pakistan.

“I don't think the toss is that important. Having played here for a few years now, I thought having a score in front of us would be a good option,” Rohit said after the toss.

“There is some grass covering and we want to exploit it. Rishabh Pant unfortunately misses out, we got out with Karthik. Avesh Khan is the third seamer,” he revealed.

Meanwhile, Pakistan skipper Babar Azam said that he would have bowled first too.

“We wanted to bowl first but that is not in our hands. We are going in with three fast bowlers, two spinners and Naseem Shah is making his debut,” said Azam.

The official ICC handle on Twitter posted a congratulatory message for Virat Kohli on his 100th T20I match as well.

Playing XIs:

India: Rohit Sharma(C), KL Rahul, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Avesh Khan, Yuzvendra Chahal, Arshdeep Singh.

Pakistan: Babar Azam (C), Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Fakhar Zaman, Iftikhar Ahmed, Khushdil Shah, Asif Ali, Shadab Khan, Mohammad Nawaz, Naseem Shah, Haris Rauf, Shahnawaz Dahani.

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