When the toss came in Pakistan skipper Mohammed Rizwan’s favour in the Champions Trophy on Sunday, it set a world record for India. It marked the 12th consecutive toss lost for India in ODI contests as Pakistan chose to bat in the high-octane clash.
LIVE: India vs Pakistan in Champions Trophy
India have now lost 12 consecutive tosses, a streak that began in November 23.
Go Beyond The Boundary with our YouTube channel. SUBSCRIBE NOW!
Before this, Netherlands had the record for the most consecutive tosses lost in 50-over matches. They had gone without the coin coming in their favour for 11 matches in a spell that ran from March 2011 until August 2013.
In the Group A match at the Dubai International Stadium, Pakistan decided to bat and made one change to their lineup from the opening fixture. In the opener, Pakistan were beaten convincingly by New Zealand.
India, meanwhile, are on the cusp of qualifying for the semi-finals, should they win.
“We’ll bat first, looks like a good surface. Want to put up a good target. Every match is important in ICC events, we will keep things normal. The boys are familiar with these conditions, we have done well here and we want to do our best today. We lost our last game, but it is past for us now. One change – Fakhar is out, Imam is in,” Rizwan said after winning the toss.
Men in Blue skipper Rohit confirmed an unchanged XI.
“Doesn’t really matter, they won the toss so we’ll bowl first. Looks similar to the last game, the surface is on the slower side. We have an experienced unit in batting, so we know what we need to do if the pitches get slower. Need an overall performance from the team – with bat and ball. The last game wasn’t an easy one for us, which is always nice. You want to be under pressure and test yourself. We are playing the same team,” Rohit said.
The last time India and Pakistan clashed in the Champions Trophy was during the 2017 edition’s final, when Virat Kohli-led unit was humbled by the Men in Green. India were skittled out for 158 runs while chasing a mammoth 338 runs.
Teams:
India (Playing XI): Rohit Sharma (c), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Axar Patel, KL Rahul (wk), Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Harshit Rana, Mohammed Shami, Kuldeep Yadav
Pakistan (Playing XI): Imam-ul-Haq, Babar Azam, Saud Shakeel, Mohammad Rizwan (wk/c), Salman Agha, Tayyab Tahir, Khushdil Shah, Shaheen Afridi, Naseem Shah, Haris Rauf, Abrar Ahmed. (ANI)
