Pakistan win toss, opt to bat against Nepal in Asia Cup 2023 opener

Multan [Pakistan], August 30 (ANI): Pakistan skipper Babar Azam won the toss and elected to bat against Nepal in the Asia Cup 2023 opener at the Multan Cricket Stadium on Wednesday. 

Pakistan team will be confident to kick off their Asia Cup campaign with a victory against Nepal with the home crowd backing them. While Asia Cup debutant Nepal would be backing themselves to pull off an upset in their first ODI encounter against Pakistan. 

Pakistan skipper Babar Azam said at the time of toss, “We will bat first, pitch looks very dry and shiny. 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.” 

Nepal skipper Rohit Paudel said at the time of toss, “Everyone 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.”

Pakistan (Playing XI): Fakhar Zaman, Imam-ul-Haq, Babar Azam(c), Mohammad Rizwan(w), 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.