The 2018 Asia Cup will see its second encounter between India and Pakistan at the Dubai International Stadium amongst cricket mad crowds.
The last encounter saw India totally outplaying Pakistan in the league matches as Pakistan barely crossed the 160-run mark despite choosing to bat first. India bowlers were in top form in the first encounter, as Bhuvneshwar and Kedar Jadhav picked three wickets each.
Only Babar Azam and Shoaib Malik could hang around a bit, but the Indian bowlers were much better in the match.
India then defeated Bangladesh pretty in the first match of super fours stage, while Pakistan got out a jail in their match against Afghanistan in the next game on the same day. Afghan spinners had the number of the Pakistani batsmen in their encounter and it was only the experience of Shoaib Malik that got Pakistan past the finish line.
Now the onus will be on other Pakistani batsmen to counter the Indian spinners, especially now that Ravindra Jadeja came up with a brilliant performance against Bangladesh on his comeback and with the spin twins already having a reputation of might, Pakistan looks to have their work cut out.
Whatever happens, the match still has a lot of excitement around it, despite the result of the first game, as Pakistan looks to get revenge on India and India looking to continue their winning streak in the tournament.
Toss:
Pakistan have won the toss and have opted to bat
Playing XIs:
Pakistan : Fakhar Zaman, Imam-ul-Haq, Babar Azam, Shoaib Malik, Sarfraz Ahmed(w/c), Asif Ali, Shadab Khan, Mohammad Nawaz, Hasan Ali, Mohammad Amir, Shaheen Afridi
India Rohit Sharma(c), Shikhar Dhawan, Ambati Rayudu, MS Dhoni(w), Dinesh Karthik, Kedar Jadhav, Ravindra Jadeja, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Yuzvendra Chahal