Australia skipper Aaron Finch won the toss and opted to field against Pakistan in the second semi-final, with a place in Sunday’s showpiece against New Zealand on the line.
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Australia skipper Aaron Finch has opted to field after winning the toss in the ongoing T20 World Cup 2021 semi-final against Pakistan. Finch has won the toss for the fifth time in six matches in the prestigious tournament. Australia have chased on all five instances and emerged victorious in the previous four. Pakistan captain Babar Azam has gone with an unchanged lineup, marking the sixth consecutive instance of the nation fielding an unchanged XI. No full member nation has gone ahead with such a move in as many T20Is in succession.
“We will bowl. The wicket will not change a lot over the course of the game. The guys are relaxed, there’ll be obvious nerves. This pitch has played true right through the IPL and the World Cup and expect more of the same tonight, no changes in the playing XI,” said Finch as quoted by Cricbuzz.
Australian pacer Mitchell Starc sounded pretty confident, hailing the “great feeling” among the group.
“Feeling good about the fact that I think it is building up in terms of rhythm and sort of how I am going about it. I didn’t feel like I had the rhythm or the smoothness in my run-up coming over here but I think it has progressed through the tournament. I have been feeling good in the last week or 10 days. It (the tournament) has been interesting. There’s a great feeling amongst the group, it has been pretty chilled as it has been a bit longer to the lead up to this game. Excited to be here, a big opportunity for us and looking forward to a good show. You have to pay attention to their top order but at the same time we have to focus on what we do well, it is 20 overs and at certain stages they are going to put a partnership or come hard at us and are a different team to say an England side who like to come hard from ball one. Babar and Rizwan have been the key to their team but we have to focus on the strengths of our bowling attack,” said Starc.
Azam stated that his players will look to put runs on the board.
“We will bowl. The wicket will not change a lot over the course of the game. The guys are relaxed, there’ll be obvious nerves. This pitch has played true right through the IPL and the World Cup and expect more of the same tonight, no changes in the playing XI,” stated the Pakistan skipper.
Veteran Mohammad Hafeez stated that he and the other members of the setup were mentally and physically ready for the encounter.
“As a team we are proud of our journey. We are mentally and physically ready for this match. The pressure is the game. Different guys are taking responsibility and the guys are responding really well, which is why this team is very special. We are very relaxed, we have prepared ourselves very well and are very confident in looking forward to the challenge. Pressure is always high in ICC events. People want you to win no matter what. We have done a great job so far and hopefully we will continue with this momentum in the next two games,” he said.
Lineups:
Pakistan (Playing XI): Mohammad Rizwan(w), Babar Azam(c), Fakhar Zaman, Mohammad Hafeez, Shoaib Malik, Asif Ali, Shadab Khan, Imad Wasim, Hasan Ali, Haris Rauf, Shaheen Afridi.
Australia (Playing XI): David Warner, Aaron Finch(c), Mitchell Marsh, Steven Smith, Glenn Maxwell, Marcus Stoinis, Matthew Wade(w), Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Adam Zampa, Josh Hazlewood.
