Asia Cup, India vs Hong Kong: Nizakat elects to field
Post an edge of the seat thriller versus Pakistan, India will cross swords with Hong Kong in the fourth match of the Asia Cup 2022 on Wednesday. Hardik Pandya's all-round exhibitions guided India to a five-wicket win in their last fixture. Hong Kong, who emerged through the Asia Cup 2022 Qualifier, have a hard task. Here is the toss update.
Pitch report, timing, and TV listing
The Dubai International Cricket Stadium will host this fixture. It's a decent batting track with 142 as the average first innings total. Sides chasing have won 41 of 77 T20Is here. Pacers can be a handful at this venue. The match will be telecast live on Star Sports Network (7:30 PM IST) and live-streamed on the Hotstar app (paid subscription).
Hong Kong to make their fourth appearance in Asia Cup
As per Sportstar, Hong Kong will mark their fourth appearance in the Asia Cup after 2004, 2008, and 2018. Notably, it would be their maiden run against India in the T20I format. So far, they have a 0-6 win-loss record in the tourney (ODIs).
Who are the key performers (T20Is)?
KL Rahul has hammered 1,831 runs at 39.80 (100s: 2, 50s: 16). Hardik Pandya has slammed 314 T20I runs in 2022, averaging 34.88. He has also captured 11 wickets at 24.00. Suryakumar Yadav has smashed 690 runs while striking at 172.06. Bhuvneshwar Kumar has snared 24 scalps in 2022, averaging 15.91. Babar Hayat has amassed 758 runs at 29.15 (100s: 1, 50s: 4).
Pant comes in; Pandya rested
India have made one change from the starting XI that faced Pakistan. Rishabh Pant has come in for Hardik Pandya, who has been rested for this encounter as confirmed by Rohit Sharma.
A look at the two teams
India Playing XI: Rohit Sharma (c), KL Rahul, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant, Ravindra Jadeja, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Avesh Khan, Yuzvendra Chahal, Arshdeep Singh Hong Kong Playing XI: Nizakat Khan (c), Yasim Murtaza, Babar Hayat, Kinchit Shah, Aizaz Khan, Scott McKechnie (wk), Zeeshan Ali, Haroon Arshad, Ehsan Khan, Ayush Shukla, Mohammad Ghazanfar
