India is undefeated in its 12 ICC T20 and ODI World Cup clashes against Pakistan.
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Pakistan has announced its 12-member squad for the upcoming clash against India on Saturday. The decision to announce the 12-member squad a day before the encounter in Dubai, certainly seems like an interesting move. The opportunity to witness Babar Azam’s men take on the Virat Kohli-led side for the sixth time across seven editions of the T20 World Cup, is being awaited by fans with bated breath. The Pakistan team management has gone in with a mix of youth and experience for the exciting encounter. It will be interesting to see if the same is enough to stop India who are undefeated in 12 ICC T20 and ODI World Cup clashes against Pakistan.
Mohammad Hafeez and Shoaib Malik have made the cut into the final 12. However, former skipper Sarfaraz Ahmed has not been included.
“Sarfaraz is a good player of spin and has good confidence of playing against India. But we considered this would be our best XI for this match. Shoaib Malik also plays very well on the front foot and tackles spin very well. That’s why we have opted for him. Of course, Sarfaraz will get his chance in the matches to come,” stated skipper Babar Azam in a media interaction.
Pakistan 12-member squad: Babar Azam (c), Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Fakhar Zaman, Mohammad Hafeez, Shoaib Malik, Asif Ali, Imad Wasim, Shadab Khan, Hasan Ali, Shaheen Afridi, Haris Rauf, Haider Ali.
India will not be announcing the playing 11 as confirmed by Team India skipper Virat Kohli, in an interaction with the press.
“I am not going to reveal the playing 11 but we have a very balanced squad. Hardik Pandya is likely to bowl at some point of the tournament, it gives lots of balance and he is improving day by day. I believe the quality of pitches is going to be far better in the World Cup, dew factor will be there. There is no special strategy for the game again Pakistan and playing XI would be according to the situation. We’ve played a tournament like IPL where there are very good teams, we play regularly week in week out. Multi nation events also give us new challenges. But there also needs to be communication with players regarding workload. All the people in the team are playing their roles to perfection and that gives us a lot of confidence heading into this tournament,” said Kohli.
The 32-year-old added that he has explained already why he is stepping away from the T20I captaincy and there is no point harping on it.
“I have already addressed the issue, no point in harping on it. I have explained myself very honestly. If people feel there is more to it, then I feel sorry for them,” stated Kohli.
India Squad: Virat Kohli (c), Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul, Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant (wk), Ishan Kishan (wk), Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Rahul Chahar, Ravichandran Ashwin, Shardul Thakur, Varun Chakravarthy, Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohammad Shami.
