India captain Rohit Sharma got emotional and fought back tears during the national anthem before the start of the T20 World Cup fixture against Pakistan at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. Rohit is making his captaincy debut in an ICC event and he could not control his emotions as Team India and thousands of people sang the national anthem.
The India captain smiled after the end of the national anthem and shares a hug with Hardik Pandya. The video of Rohit getting emotional went viral in no time.
India have won the toss and opted to field first in the fixture. There was no place for Yuzvendra Chahal as the team management went ahead with R Ashwin. Axar Patel was confirmed to be part of the playing XI.
Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Mohammed Shami are jointly leading the pace attack while Arshdeep Singh is the third pacer in the final XI. Dinesh Karthik is playing ahead of Rishabh Pant. Deepak Hooda, Rishabh, Harshal and Chahal are 4 players are not part of the playing XI.
Pakistan welcomed back their prime pacer, Shaheen Afridi in the playing XI. The left-arm pacer had proved his fitness in the warm-up fixture and will lead the pace attack against India. Fakhar Zaman was ruled out of the game on Saturday (October 22).
The winning team of this contest will strengthen its chances of making it to the 2nd round quite early. India have only suffered one defeat against Pakistan in T20 World Cups.
Here are the playing XIs of both teams –
India: Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya, Dinesh Karthik, Axar Patel, Ravichandran Ashwin, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohammed Shami, Arshdeep Singh
Pakistan: Babar Azam, Mohammad Rizwan, Shan Masood, Haider Ali, Mohammad Nawaz, Shadab Khan, Iftikhar Ahmed, Asif Ali, Shaheen Afridi, Haris Rauf, Naseem Shah
