India and Pakistan are going head to head in the Asia Cup at 5 pm today. It is a super 4 contest. India has won all the matches till now whereas Pakistan has lost to India only. India is likely to go with an unchanged eleven for the game. In the last match, Ravindra Jadeja made a stunning comeback taking 4 wickets against Bangladesh. The match will be played in Dubai and going by the weather conditions it is once again going to be hot and sultry day which will test the fitness of the players.
Recent form suggests that both teams are going into this game with a win under their belt. But the last 5 matches between India and Pakistan have been a damp squib, the contests are one-sided with an eight-wicket win, a 180-run win, a 124-run win, and a 76-run win being the margin in the last 4 contests. If you look at the last five matches for the sides, the results are :
India : WWWLL (last five completed matches, most recent first) (W – Win, L – Loss)
Pakistan : WLWWW
In the spotlight :
Jasprit Bumrah and Bhuvneshwar will once again be in the spotlight. They have the responsibility of giving India early breakthroughs. In the spin department, Chahal and Kuldeep will once again try to stamp their authority. Pakistan played Afghanistan spinners well in their last game and that makes it more challenging for Indian spinners. In the batting department, Rohit and Shikhar will have to again do the bulk of scoring in the absence of Virat Kohli who is being rested for the tournament.
For Pakistan, they will be hoping the batsmen continue with their good form. In their last encounter against India, they did not put enough runs on the board to challenge the Indian Batsmen. The onus will be once again on the openers, Fakhar Zaman and Imam ul Haq. In the middle order, the batting revolves around Shoaib Malik.
Likely XI – India (possible): 1 Shikhar Dhawan, 2 Rohit Sharma (capt), 3 Ambati Rayudu, 4 MS Dhoni (wk), 5 Dinesh Karthik, 6 Kedhar Jadhav, 7 Ravindra Jadeja, 8 Bhuvneshwar Kumar, 9 Kuldeep Yadav, 10 Yuzvendra Chahal, 11 Jasprit Bumrah
Pakistan (possible): 1 Fakhar Zaman, 2 Imam-ul-Haq, 3 Babar Azam, 4 Shoaib Malik, 5 Sarfraz Ahmed (capt & wk), 6 Asif Ali, 7 Shadab Khan/Haris Sohail, 8 Mohammad Nawaz, 9 Shaheen Afridi, 10 Hasan Ali, 11 Usman Khan
