Salman Agha won the toss for Pakistan and decided to bowl first on what he felt was a “tacky” surface. If tacky to begin with, pitches tend to get better as the temperature comes down in the night. India read the game differently. They loaded another spinner into the XI, and their captain Suryakumar Yadav said they would have batted first anyway. That suggests they expect the pitch to slow down enough to counter any disadvantage that possible dew might bring on later in the night. As has been the case since the Asia Cup in September, the captains didn’t shake hands at the toss.

While Pakistan remained unchanged, India welcomed back their regular opener Abhishek Sharma,  who sat out of the last game with a stomach illness. He took Sanju Samson’s place, making it two left-hand batters at the top, and Kuldeep Yadav, replaced left-arm quick Arshdeep Singh.

Agha might have chosen to chase, but he did say the pitch overall was expected to be slower than SCC, which is where they have been playing in this World Cup so far.

The result at the toss meant we were not far away from the anticipated clash between India’s powerhouse batting and Pakistan’s latest mystery spinner, Usman Tariq, who bowls without a run-up, whose height of release varies massively from ball to ball, and whose pause in the delivery stride has been discussed endlessly. Four international matches old, Tariq averages under eight per wicket and has conceded less than a run a ball.

India: Ishan Kishan (wk),  Abhishek Sharma,  Tilak Varma,  Suryakumar Yadav (capt.),  Hardik Pandya,  Shivam Dube,  Rinku Singh,  Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav,  Varun Chakravarthy,  Jasprit Bumrah.

Pakistan:  Sahibzada Farhan,  Saim Ayub, Salman Agha (capt.),  Babar Azam,  Shadab Khan,  Usman Khan (wk), Mohammad Nawaz,  Faheem Ashraf,  Shaheen Shah Afridi,  Usman Tariq,  Abrar Ahmed

[Cricinfo]