Pakistan: Imam-ul-Haq, Babar Azam, Saud Shakeel, Mohammad Rizwan (capt and wkt), Tayyab tahir, Salman Agha, Khushdil Shah, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Naseem Shah, Haris Rauf, Abrar Ahmed. Imam-ul-Haq replaces Fakhar Zaman, who picked up an oblique injury against New Zealand.
Rizwan: It looks like a good surface. If you play an ICC event, every game is important. The boys are familiar with the conditions and we’ve done well in this ground as well. We lost the last game but it’s in the past for us. One change: Imam in for Fakhar.
Rohit: It’s not the same surface but looks similar to what we played on, in the last game. It could get slower. Great opportunity to come out and do what we do as a team. The way we played the last game...it wasn’t easy for us and we had to work our way. You want to test yourself and be under pressure. We’re playing the same team.
They wait for Ravi Shastri to do his boxing-match exuberance. Rohit Sharma, all in royal blue, has his hand in his pocket; Mohammad Rizwan, in a lime green top, dark green trousers, tucks his hands behind his back. Rizwan calls heads – and heads it is!.
A quick look back eight years to the 2017 Champions Trophy Final at The Oval, when Pakistan turned the tables upside down and beat India in the final, thanks to a fabulous century from Fakhar Zaman and a thrilling opening spell by Mohammad Amir. The toss will be in about ten minutes, the day hot, hot, hot – 33 degrees at just after noon. The 1pm start means there won’t be any dew for the calling captains to consider.
Hello! What better reason to roll out of bed on a Sunday morning than for India v Pakistan, cousin v cousin, grudge v gripe, cricket con passione. We’re in Dubai today, due to the Indian government/BCCI’s refusal to play in Pakistan, and the match is a sell out. In fact it was a sell out within minutes of the tickets going public – expect a choppy sea of blue and green shirts, alongside the cacophony of noise,.
The last time the two countries met in an ICC 50-over game was at Ahmedabad during the 2023 World Cup, India knocking off an easy win by seven wickets in the 31st over. They’re huge favourites today too, and come into the game having beaten Bangaldesh on Thursday, thanks largely to a century from Shubman Gill and five wickets from Mohammad Shami. Pakistan, meanwhile, crashed and burned against New Zealand, losing by 60 runs, and face being knocked out early from the first ICC event they’ve hosted in 29 years.
