Asia Cup 2023 Drama Unfolds: India's Bold Toss Choice Against Archrival Pakistan - Surprise Batting Order and Star Comebacks!

India won the toss and chose to bat against archival Pakistan despite the cloudy sky and the possibility of rain. Pakistan, according to Babar Azam, would have chosen to bat first had they won the toss.

In order to have a seam bowler who can also bat at No. 8, India chose Shardul Thakur, who beat out Prasidh Krishna and Mohammed Shami for a berth in the starting XI. Ishan Kishan was given the opportunity to bat at No. 3 on the BCCI squad roster, with Virat Kohli moving down to No. 4 in order to give Ishan Kishan a few more opportunities as KL Rahul recovers from an injury. After recovering from back operations, Jasprit Bumrah and Shreyas Iyer made their much-anticipated ODI comebacks.

Pakistan had revealed an unchanged starting lineup a day prior to the game following a commanding victory against Nepal in the tournament opener.

Since their World Cup matchup in 2019, this was the first One Day International between the two longtime foes. Given that two out of the three teams from each group advance to the Super Fours, this match may not be of great consequence in the context of the Asia Cup. Nepal is the third team in the division with Pakistan and India.

Even though Pakistan is the tournament's official host, the Indian government forbade the team from travelling there, so the match had to be played in a neutral site: Pallekele in Sri Lanka.

Indian Players:

Rohit Sharma is captain, followed by Shubman Gill, Ishan Kishan, Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Siraj, and Jasprit Bumrah.

Pakistan Players:

Imam-ul-Haq, Fakhar Zaman, Babar Azam (captain), Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Agha Salman, Iftikhar Ahmed, Mohammad Nawaz, Shaadab Khan, and Haris Rauf, Naseem Shah and Shaheen Shah Afridi