Pakistan will hope to add a third Asia Cup trophy to their name as they host their first cricket tournament in 15 years in Multan on Wednesday, August 30. They commence their campaign against Nepal and will bat first with their best possible XI in the match.
Pakistan Playing XI
Imam-ul-Haq, Fakhar Zaman, Babar Azam (c), Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Agha Salman, Iftikhar Ahmed, Shadab Khan, Mohammad Nawaz, Shaheen Afridi, Naseem Shah, Haris Rauf
Nepal Playing XI
Kushal Bhurtel, Aasif Sheikh(w), Rohit Paudel(c), Aarif Sheikh, Kushal Malla, Dipendra Singh Airee, Gulsan Jha, Sompal Kami, Karan KC, Sandeep Lamichhane, Lalit Rajbanshi
Before the tournament, Pakistan skipper Babar Azam had expressed that he would have liked that the entire tournament would have been played on Pakistan soil. Speaking during the toss, he said, "No reason to name the XI earlier, we wanted to give confidence to our team. To be honest, being the top-ranked team brings a good kind of pressure, we'll try to enjoy and do our best."
Meanwhile, Nepal skipper Rohit Paudel is excited to do well for his country. "veryone is very happy, it is our first game in the Asia Cup. Everyone in Nepal is really excited for this game. Most of the things here are very similar to Nepal, looks like a beautiful wicket to bat on," he said.
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