Indian captain Rohit Sharma who lost the toss against Pakistan admits they need to assess how conditions play and come up with an idea of what a good score is.
Indian cricket team under Rohit Sharma was scheduled to face Babar Azam-led Pakistan to play the 19th match of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2024 on June 9 in Nassau County International Cricket Stadium, New York.
After analysing the pitch condition, many experts suggested the team would prefer bowling first after winning the toss. Pakistan seems to have the same plan, Babar Azam decided to bowl first after winning the toss.
After losing the toss, Indian captain Rohit Sharma accepted that they would have bowled first if they won the toss.
“Would’ve bowled first too. 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. We’re sticking to the same XI”, Rohit Sharma said.
The expectation for this match reached its new peak following the team’s recent performance. India who won all the group matches and semifinal matches lost the grand final of the 2023 World Cup and broke the hearts of many.
Following the two-month-long IPL stint, the Indian team with the new combination faced Ireland and pulled an 8 wickets victory against Ireland in their first match of the 2024 T20 World Cup.
On the other hand, Pakistan under head coach Gary Kisten lost their first game of the tournament against the United States and stunned the cricket community.
Speaking of the past, both India and Pakistan played seven T20 World Cup matches where India had a clear upper hand with six victories while Pakistan pulled their sole victory in the 2021 T20 World Cup. Notably, each of the last five T20 WC games between the two has been won by chasing teams.
T20 World Cup 2024 IND vs PAK Playing 11
India: Rohit Sharma(c), Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant(w), Suryakumar Yadav, Shivam Dube, Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Arshdeep Singh
Pakistan: Mohammad Rizwan(w), Babar Azam(c), Usman Khan, Fakhar Zaman, Shadab Khan, Iftikhar Ahmed, Imad Wasim, Shaheen Afridi, Haris Rauf, Naseem Shah, Mohammad Amir
