In what comes a delightful news for die-hard sub continent fans, traditional rivals India and Pakistan will once again go head to head at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium in Sharjah when an especially drawn-up India XI and Pakistan XI will clash against each other on the sidelines of the third edition of the 10PL-World Cup of tennis ball cricket tournament on March 11.

The tournament will feature some of the best tennis ball cricket players in action. The tournament itself will be played from March 8-13 at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium, like in the first two editions.

West Indies' Dwayne Bravo has been named as the face of tournament and will make an appearance on the final day.

While the India squad for the match will be coached by Bharat Lohar and managed by Javid Shaikh, the Pakistan line-up will have Asif Mumtaz as coach and Usman Manzoor as manager. An interesting choice in the Pakistan line-up is Shiraz Ahmed who played under Bravo for Maratha Arabians in their triumphant T10 league campaign at Abu Dhabi.

The last time an India and Pakistan side played each other at Sharjah was in 2013-14 during the final of the Under-19 Asia Cup. Much before that, the senior sides clashed for the last time in March 2000 during a triangular tournament also featuring South Africa.

The 10PL tournament is the brainchild of UAE-based company Petromann. A total of 16 teams participated in the first two editions of 10PL-World Cup of tennis ball cricket and for this year nearly 40 expressions of interest have already been received by the organisers for the available 20 spots.

Abdul Latif Khan, chairman, Petromann said: "This format is very popular in the Indian subcontinent. We have had many of cricketing legends from the subcontinent rising from playing this brand of cricket. So it was only appropriate that we offer them a rich tribute by staging this special India-Pakistan match."

"If we succeed then we can see more such matches between the two sides in the future. We have chosen two very exciting squads from the best available players in the format from the two countries", he added.

Teams (from)

India: Ankur Singh, Omkar Desai, Thomas Dias, Moyoddin Shaikh, Krishna Satpute, Usman Patel, Sumeet Dhekale, Yogesh Penkar, Ajith Mohithe, Dinesh Nakrani, Sarooj, Vishwajith Taqoor, Jafar Jamal, Vijay Pawle, Sultan Khan; Coach: Bharat Lohar; Manager: Javid Shaikh.

Pakistan: Shiraz Ahmed, Zaheer Kalia, Mubashar Ahmad, Karim Khan, Fahimullah Shah, Wajid Khan, Irfan, Saddam Shah, Usman Pacer, Jalat Khan, Karna Zahid, Shebaz Ahmed, Nadir, Sayed Maqsood, Samiullah; Coach: Asif Mumtaz; Manager: Usman Manzoor.