Dubai: Team India sprung a surprise for their Asia Cup mega clash against Pakistan here on Sunday evening, picking the veteran Dinesh Karthik over Rishabh Pant as the wicketkeeper-batsman.
Rohit Sharma won the toss against Babar Azam and chose to bowl first.
The Pakistan captain, who said after the toss that he would have also preferred to bowl first, gave the nod to rookie pacer Shahnawaz Dahani. Pakistan will be missing their bowling spearheads Shaheen Shah Afridi and Mohammad Wasim Jr.
THE TEAMS
India: Rohit Sharma (captain), KL Rahul, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Avesh Khan, Yuzvendra Chahal, Arshdeep Singh
Pakistan: Babar Azam (captain), Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Fakhar Zaman, Iftikhar Ahmed, Khushdil Shah, Asif Ali, Shadab Khan, Mohammad Nawaz, Naseem Shah, Haris Rauf, Shahnawaz Dahani.
