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Indian skipper Virat Kohli’s bad luck at the coin toss continued as Pakistan skipper Babar Azam won the toss and opted to bowl first and cited the dew factor for his decision. Kohli admitted that he wanted to bowl first as well but isn’t worried about batting first.
“We are pretty happy with setting the target. We would have bowled first too, but the toss is not in your control. We are pretty balanced with our squad and you need to be prepared for it. We need to stay as professional as possible. We need to stay focused on the processes. Everyone watches it closely all over the world. We need to ensure we don't get too emotional. The pitch looks very different. Evenly rolled and there is no grass at all which was the case during the IPL. We expect the pitch to stay good all through and set a good total,” Kohli said at the coin toss.
On the other hand, Azam had already announced his 12-man team in the press conference. At the coin toss, he revealed that Haider Ali is one player that will miss out from the squad.
“We'll look to take early wickets and put pressure. Dew is also a factor. We have had good practice sessions and am confident about our preparations. Pakistan's bowlers are known to trouble other teams but I am confident about our batting too,” Azam said.
India’s Playing XI: KL Rahul, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli (c), Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant (wk), Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohammed Shami, Jasprit Bumrah, Varun Chakravarthy
Pakistan Playing XI: Babar Azam(c), Mohammad Rizwan(w), Fakhar Zaman, Mohammad Hafeez, Shoaib Malik, Asif Ali, Imad Wasim, Shadab Khan, Hasan Ali, Haris Rauf, Shaheen Afridi
