India captain Rohit Sharma won the toss and opted to bowl first against Pakistan in the most-anticipated ODI World Cup 2023 match at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on Saturday.

India have made just one change from their eight-wicket win over Afghanistan in New Delhi as Shubman Gill made a comeback after missing the first two games due to dengue.

Gill has replaced Ishan Kishan in the team and will open the innings with Rohit Sharma. On the other hand, Pakistan are unchanged from their last match against Sri Lanka.

“We will bowl first, can not get bigger than this fantastic atmosphere. Sure a lot of us are going to experience something really extraordinary. It’s a good track, not going to change much, dew could be a big factor and keeping that in mind, we want to bowl first. We want to keep striving for the best, we want to come out there and give our best in every game,” said Rohit Sharma at the toss.

“Keeping the atmosphere in the team relaxed is the most important thing in a tournament like this. Gill is back in place of Ishan, unfortunate for Ishan to miss out, feel for him, he stepped up when we needed him. Gill has been a special player for us over the past year or so, especially at this ground and we wanted him back,” he added.

“We also wanted to bowl first. We have had good two wins, momentum and confidence is high. Jam-packed stadium, we will enjoy it. We want to be good in the field, we had a couple of good practice sessions. Same team for us,” said Babar Azam.

Playing XI:

India: Rohit Sharma(c), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul(w), Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj

Pakistan: Abdullah Shafique, Imam-ul-Haq, Babar Azam(c), Mohammad Rizwan(w), Saud Shakeel, Iftikhar Ahmed, Shadab Khan, Mohammad Nawaz, Hasan Ali, Shaheen Afridi, Haris Rauf