India vs Pakistan: Team India arrive at Pallekele Stadium in Sri Lanka’s Kandy

Kandy [Sri Lanka], September 2 (ANI): Team India arrived at the Pallekele International Cricket Stadium in the Sri Lankan city of Kandy to play their first match of the Asia Cup 2023 against arch-rivals Pakistan on Saturday. 

Fans are eagerly waiting for the ‘high-octane’ match and the weather is also supporting the cricketing fans as the sky is clear in Pallekele. 

“Virat Kohli always performs against Pakistan. I have full hope that he will score a century today too. Team India will easily win this match,” a fan who arrived to watch the match in Kandy said. 

The men in Blue will take on Pakistan at the Pallekele International Cricket Stadium in their Asia Cup 2023 opener on Saturday.

Pakistan on Friday named their playing XI for the clash against India in Pallekele. Babar Azam’s men are fielding an unchanged XI with a three-prong pace attack supported by three spin-bowling all-rounders.

India have a few tricky calls to make for the big clash, notably with respect to where Ishan Kishan bats. The wicketkeeper batter is set to play in the XI with KL Rahul ruled out of the first couple of matches.

They would also either have to choose between Axar Patel and Shardul Thakur for the No. 8 spot to lengthen the batting or go bowling heavy and play Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj and Mohammed Shami alongside Kuldeep Yadav.

Indian Squad: Rohit Sharma (captain), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul, Suryakumar Yadav, Tilak Varma, Ishan Kishan, Hardik Pandya (vice-captain), Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Shardul Thakur, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammad Shami, Mohammed Siraj, Kuldeep Yadav, Prasidh Krishna.

Pakistan XI: Fakhar Zaman, Imam Ul Haq, Babar Azam, Mohammad Rizwan, Agha Salman, Iftikhar Ahmed, Shadab Khan, Mohammad Nawaz, Shaheen Afridi, Naseem Shah and Haris Rauf.