India have once again dropped Arshdeep Singh from the playing XI against arch-rivals Pakistan in the ongoing Asia Cup at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium. The left-arm pacer has 99 wickets to his name in T20I cricket, which is the most by an Indian in the shortest format of the game. Against Pakistan, he has seven wickets in four matches in T20Is, but despite that, the team management preferred the pace duo of Jasprit Bumrah and all-rounder Hardik Pandya.
The goal for Team India has been to extend the batting unit and also play three spinners in the mix. For the same reason, Arshdeep failed to earn a spot in the playing XI. Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav and Varun Chakaravarthy will lead the spin department, which dominated the UAE in their opening game of the tournament.
Pakistan opt to bat first in Dubai
Pakistan have won the toss and elected to bat first against India. The Salman Ali Agha-led side was successful in restricting Oman in their first game of the campaign and arguably, they have come up with the same plan. India, on the other hand, were happy with the choice of bowling first as captain Suryakumar Yadav expects some dew in the latter half of the game.
“We were looking to bowl first, happy with it. We played just one strip away, was a nice wicket and better to bat on in the night. It's humid so hoping for some dew. Same team,” Suryakumar said.
Pakistan (Playing XI): Sahibzada Farhan, Saim Ayub, Mohammad Haris (wk), Fakhar Zaman, Salman Agha (c), Hasan Nawaz, Mohammad Nawaz, Faheem Ashraf, Shaheen Afridi, Sufiyan Muqeem, Abrar Ahmed
India (Playing XI): Abhishek Sharma, Shubman Gill, Suryakumar Yadav (c), Tilak Varma, Sanju Samson (wk), Shivam Dube, Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Varun Chakaravarthy