To everyone’s surprise, Pakistan announced their playing eleven for the upcoming Asia Cup 2023 encounter against India a day before the game on Friday, September. Babar Azam-led side is set to face India with the same team that beat Nepal in the opening match of the tournament so there are no places in the team for the likes of Faheem Ashraf, Mohammad Wasim and Saud Shakeel.
Pakistan kicked off Asia Cup 2023 by thrashing Nepal by 238 runs with Babar Azam and Iftikhar Ahmed smashing brilliant hundreds. The management announced the squad for the Nepal game a day before to display their confidence in the current team. Teams rarely reveal the playing combination before the toss and considering the importance of the upcoming match, this announcement comes as a surprise.
Their impressive all-round performance against Nepal highlighted no weakness in the team. Fakhar Zaman and Imam-ul-Haq failed to make an impact but both the openers are in excellent form in the 50-over cricket. Babar Azam, Mohammad Rizwan, and Iftikhar Ahmed shone in the middle with crucial knocks to display Pakistan’s batting strength.
In bowling, the star pace trio of Shaheen Afridi, Naseem Shah and Haris Rauf were impressive and as expected kept their place in the team. Mohammad Wasim will be warming the bench for the second consecutive game despite having impressive numbers in ODIs. Bowling all-rounder Agha Salman didn’t get a chance to bowl against Nepal and failed to make any contribution with a bat. But he features in the team for India game ahead of the likes of Faheem Ashraf and Saud Shakeel.
Pakistan Playing XI vs India: Fakhar Zaman, Imam-ul-Haq, Babar Azam (c), Salman Ali Agha, Iftikhar Ahmed, Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Shadab Khan(vc), Mohammad Nawaz, Naseem Shah, Shaheen Afridi, Haris Rauf
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