T20 World Cup: Imad replaces Azam as Pakistan elect to bowl first against unchanged India

New York, June 9 (IANS) All-rounder Imad Wasim replaces batter Azam Khan as Pakistan won the toss and elect to bowl first against India in a highly-anticipated Group A match of Men’s T20 World Cup at the Nassau County International Cricket Stadium on Sunday. 

The toss had been delayed by 30 minutes due to slight rain in the city, with clouds and windy conditions on offer right now. Sunday’s match will be played on the pitch which hosted Netherlands-South Africa clash on Saturday, which the Proteas won by four wickets.

Imad comes back into Pakistan’s playing eleven after a side strain kept him out of the side’s surprising loss in their tournament opener to co-hosts USA at Dallas earlier this week.” We will bowl first because of the weather and moisture in the pitch.”

“The conditions suit us, we have four fast bowlers. We will try to use it to our best. Past is past, we are looking forward to today's match, we are ready and will give our 100%. Always a big game, our confidence is always high for India vs Pakistan matches,” said captain Babar Azam.

India have a 6-1 head-to-head record against Pakistan in Men’s T20 World Cup meetings. The last five T20 World Cup games between the two teams have been won by the chasing side. India won their opening match against Ireland by eight wickets at New York earlier this week.

India skipper Rohit Sharma said he would have liked to bowl first too and added his playing eleven is unchanged. “We need to assess how conditions play and come up with an idea of what a good score is. Those games have helped us assess conditions here.”

“We've spoken about what we need to do as a batting unit to get a good score and then we've got the bowling unit to defend. Every game is important in a World Cup, you can't just show up. Anything can happen,” he said.

Playing XIs

India: Rohit Sharma (captain), Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant (wk), Suryakumar Yadav, Shivam Dube, Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Jasprit Bumrah, Arshdeep Singh, and Mohammed Siraj

Pakistan: Babar Azam (captain), Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Usman Khan, Fakhar Zaman, Shadab Khan, Iftikhar Ahmed, Imad Wasim, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Haris Rauf, Naseem Shah and Mohammad Amir.

--IANS

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