Asia Cup 2018: India's predicted XI against Pakistan
Having pulled off a runaway victory against Bangladesh which saw them prevail over the Tigers with a convincing margin of 7 wickets, India will now go head-to-head against their arch-rivals Pakistan on 23 September at the Dubai International Stadium.
Since both the teams have already triumphed in their first Super Four clash, the winner of this key fixture will easily progress to the finals of the tournament. Consequently, both Pakistan and India are anticipated to field their best possible XI for the consequential encounter.
So let us take a look at how India could line up to face Pakistan tomorrow.
Openers: Rohit Sharma (C) and Shikhar Dhawan
India's opening slot has long been monopolized by Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan and the duo has been the mainspring of the team's batting order, notching up a number of remarkable partnerships over the course of past few years.
Since the Asia Cup 2018 commenced, the pair has been in sublime form. Shikhar Dhawan was splendid in the opening encounter against Hong Kong as he scored a stroke-filled century to help India scrape past the associates.
Rohit Sharma was also impressive versus Bangladesh on Friday, racking up an unbeaten 83 off 104 balls to skipper India to a walkover. As such, there's absolutely no doubt as to who will open the account for the Men in Blue against their arch-rivals, Pakistan.
Middle-Order: Ambati Rayudu, Dinesh Karthik and MS Dhoni (WK)
Following Virat Kohli's exclusion from the squad, this is the ideal time for the team management to experiment with various options in the batting order. Thus far, they have only put Ambati Rayudu and Dinesh Karthik to the test and the two have done nothing wrong barring Rayudu's poor showing against Bangladesh to be kept out from the starting XI.
As for MS Dhoni, India will be in dire need of his leadership and experience with Rohit Sharma at the helm of the team.