Dubai: Pakistan captain Babar Azam won the toss and asked India to bat first in the high-voltage T20 World Cup match on Sunday evening.
India picked two spinners and three pacers for the blockbuster clash.
Team India prefer chasing in T20 Internationals, and Kohli admitted that he would have fielded first had he called correctly.
“But we are pretty happy to be batting… we can’t control the toss. Luckily we have the balance to cope with situations,” Kohli after the toss.
India will go in as favourites with most of their players having played in the recent IPL in the UAE. The men in blue also hold a psychological edge, having beaten Pakistan in all five matches they have contested in the T20 World Cup so far.
Of the 8 T20 Internationals they have played with each other, Pakistan have won just one game — in 2012, during the last bilateral series between the two nations.
THE TEAMS
India: KL Rahul, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli (captain), Surya Kumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant (wk), Hardik Pandya, Ravinder Jadeja, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Varun Chakravarthy, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami
Pakistan: Babar Azam (captain), Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Fakhar Zaman, Mohammad Hafeez, Shoaib Malik, Asif Ali, Shadab Khan, Imad Wasim, Hasan Ali, Haris Rauf, Shaheen Shah Afridi.
