Pakistan pace duo Shaheen Afridi, Naseem Shah restricted India for 266 in their opening match against the traditional rival .
Despite numerous pundits suggesting to chase on this deck, India’s captain Rohit Sharma has decided to have a bat first up.
Rohith Sharma and Shuman Gill opened the accounts for India in batting. Rain interrupted the game occationally and after the first interruption Rohith Departed when the score read on 15. Afridi is on the mark straight away as he targets a fourth-stump line with just enough movement to cause the batsman doubt.
Virat Kohli joined Gill , yet that partnership did not last long as Afridi striked again as he removed King Kohli from the crease, almost a similar delivery to the one which uprooted Rohit.
Shreyas Iyer looked threated had to depart ,as he was looking to pull imperiously through the midwicket region, instead finds Zaman off the bowling of Haris Rauf.
Rauf changes ends and strikes immediately as Gill plays onto his stumps!
The pacer bowls a length ball on and about the off stump, with Gill looking to steer through the covers. India 66/4.
The Ishan Kishan and Hardik Pandya put up 138 runs for the fifth wicket Rauf breaks the partnership as Kishan mistimes a shot to Babar at midwicket.. Kishan made 82. Afridi is brought on to see out his overs and strikes straightaway when the score was 239 to send off Hardik Pandya for 87. Jadeja followed him soon as Afridi stricked in the same over taking his fourth wicket in the match. Nazeem
India win toss and opt to bat
“There is a bit of weather around, and we can’t think too much about it,” he said.
“At the end of the day we have to come out and play good cricket.”
“We had some time off after the West Indies series. We had our players’ camp in Bangalore [India]. All in all, it was good prep for this tournament.”
Pakistan captain Babar Azam shared his sentiments: “We also wanted to bat first. We will try to use the overcast conditions. We played a lot of cricket here in the last one and a half months, so we know the conditions well.”
Pakistan XI
Pakistan: Fakhar Zaman, Imam-ul-Haq, Babar Azam (C), Mohammad Rizwan (WK), Salman Ali Agha, Iftikhar Ahmed, Shadab Khan, Muhammad Nawaz, Shaheen Afridi, Naseem Shah, Haris Rauf.
India XI
India: Rohit Sharma (C), Shuman Gill, Ishan Kishan (WK), Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammad Siraj.
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