Multan: Pakistan captain Babar Azam has won the toss and elected to bat first against Nepal in the opening match of Asia Cup at the Multan Cricket Stadium on Thursday.
Pakistan, the top-ranked ODI team are the two-time Asia Cup winners and are playing against Nepal for the first time in the format. Nepal, who got their ODI status in 2018, are making their debut appearance in the Asia Cup after winning the inaugural ACC Men’s Premier Cup earlier this year.
“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,” said Pakistan skipper Babar Azam.
Nepal captain Rohit Paudel said everyone is happy on playing their first Asia Cup game. “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.”
Top two sides from Groups A and B will progress to the Super Fours, where they will play three more games at the R Premadasa Stadium in Colombo, which will also host the final on September 17.
Playing XIs
Pakistan: Fakhar Zaman, Imam-ul-Haq, Babar Azam (captain), Mohammad Rizwan (wicketkeeper), Agha Salman, Iftikhar Ahmed, Shadab Khan, Mohammad Nawaz, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Naseem Shah and Haris Rauf
Nepal: Kushal Bhurtel, Aasif Sheikh (wicketkeeper), Rohit Paudel (captain), Aarif Sheikh, Kushal Malla, Dipendra Singh Airee, Gulsan Jha, Sompal Kami, Karan KC, Sandeep Lamichhane and Lalit Rajbanshi
–IANS
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