India vs Pakistan: Team India skipper Rohit Sharma, playing his first ever ICC event as captain, got emotional during the national anthem at Melbourne Cricket Ground on Sunday ahead of the high-octane clash against Pakistan. The senior opener was finding it tough to hold back his tears as a jam-packed MCG with thousands of spectators sang the national anthem. After the anthem got over, an emotional Rohit had a smile on his face as he hugged Hardik Pandya. As was expected, the video of Rohit Sharma getting emotional went viral on social media.
Meanwhile, India opted to bowl first after winning the toss against Pakistan at MCG. Rohit Sharma decided to bring in Ashwin in place of Yuzvendra Chahal. Axar Patel also found a place in India XI. Both Ashwin and Axar are good hitters and it seems the team management wanted batting depth in their lineup.
"Looks like a good pitch, it's always nice to bowl with overcast conditions. Think the ball will swing around a bit, and we need to take its advantage. Preparations have been good. We played a couple of practice games in Brisbane. Time to come out and enjoy ourselves now. We were expecting nothing less than this, hopefully we'll entertain them (the crowd). We have seven batters, three seamers and two spinners," Rohit Sharma said at the toss.
India Playing XI: Rohit Sharma (c), KL Rahul, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Axar Patel, Ravichandran Ashwin, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohammed Shami, Arshdeep Singh
Pakistan Playing XI: Babar Azam (c), Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Shan Masood, Shadab Khan, Haider Ali, Iftikhar Ahmed, Mohammad Nawaz, Asif Ali, Shaheen Afridi, Naseem Shah, Haris Rauf