India vs Pakistan Asia Cup 2023: India's captain Rohit Sharma wins toss, elects to bat first

India vs Pakistan Asia Cup 2023: India won the toss against Pakistan for their high-octane match in Kandy, Sri Lanka on Saturday. Skipper Rohit Sharma has opted to bat first against Pakistan in their Asia Cup 2023 match.

Despite earlier warnings about rain, the covers have come off and there is no rain on the ground at the moment. Team India has inducted Shreyas Iyer, and Shardul Thakur as Mohammed Shami is unavailable for the game. Pakistan have kept their team unchanged.

This will be the first game for India in the tournament. Pakistan has already defeated Nepal by 238 runs.  

Playing XIs

India Playing XI: Rohit Sharma (c), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Ishan Kishan (wk), Hardik Pandya (vc), Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj

Pakistan Playing XI: Fakhar Zaman, Imam-ul-Haq, Babar Azam (c), Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Iftikhar Ahmed, Agha Salman, Shadab Khan, Mohammad Nawaz, Shaheen Afridi, Naseem Shah, Haris Rauf  

After winning the toss, Rohit Sharma said: "We are going to bat first. There is a bit of weather around, but can't think much about it. Got to play good cricket, you need to embrace the challenge, embrace the situation. We had some time off after the West Indies series. Everyone was up for those drills and challenges in Bangalore. Let's see what we can achieve in this tournament. It's a quality tournament with quality oppositions. At the end of the day we need to see what we can achieve as a team. (Shreyas) Iyer is back, (Jasprit) Bumrah is back and we got three seamers. Got two spinners - Kuldeep (Yadav) and (Ravindra) Jadeja," said Rohit Sharma.

After the toss, Pakistan skipper Baba Azam said that even Pakistan wanted to bat first. "We would have batted first, but toss is not in our hands. We have played a lot of cricket here, so we know the conditions. Top teams are playing so Asia Cup is good. We'll try to do our best. We are playing with the same combination, no changes. Performing well always gives you confidence, we'll try to capitalize. It's a high intensity match, we'll try to be calm and composed," said Azam after the toss.

India and Pakistan will face each other in the ongoing Asia Cup after a gap of four years. India and Pakistan have played a total of 132 ODI matches. India have won 55 while Pakistan have won 73.