Australia and Pakistan are facing off as the latter hope to bounce back from their loss against India in their fourth match at the MA Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore on Friday, October 20. With a lot at stake, Pakistan skipper Babar Azam won the toss and chose to bowl first, while also dropping vice-captain Shadab Khan for off-spinner Usama Mir, who has 11 wickets in eight ODIs.
Australia Playing XI:
David Warner, Mitchell Marsh, Steven Smith, Marnus Labuschagne, Josh Inglis(w), Glenn Maxwell, Marcus Stoinis, Pat Cummins(c), Mitchell Starc, Adam Zampa, Josh Hazlewood
Pakistan Playing XI:
Abdullah Shafique, Imam-ul-Haq, Babar Azam(c), Mohammad Rizwan(w), Saud Shakeel, Iftikhar Ahmed, Mohammad Nawaz, Usama Mir, Hasan Ali, Shaheen Afridi, Haris Rauf
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Pitch Report:
According to Ian Bishop and Shane Watson, “Glorious sunshine. Dimensions - 76 m straight, square almost equidistant (63m and 64m). This looks like a really nice surface. There's a really nice grass cover. It's rock hard, really good base to this surface, so the ball is gonna zip through for the fast bowlers very nicely. There's not going to be much purchase for the spinners at all. Deception is going to be their friend tonight. The last two nights, there's been a lot of dew on the ground, that's definitely going to be a factor.”
What did the captains say:
Pat Cummins confirmed that there were no changes to their squad, “We would have had a bowl as well. The energy was awesome even though they had a big partnership. The intent from our guys was excellent. The way we played against Lanka, we should do the same. The same. Everyone good to go.”
Meanwhile, Babar Azam revealed his reason for choosing to bowl first, "We will bowl first. The pitch looks really good. We have had a couple of good sessions. We are hoping to do well. We need to do well in batting. We will try our best. Shadab is not playing. Usama comes in.
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