Asia Cup 2018: RP Singh predicts India's playing XI for the marquee clash

The mother of all the battles, India vs Pakistan, will take place at the Dubai International Stadium on Wednesday. Tickets are sold out already for the marquee clash and the atmosphere will absolutely be enthralling in the middle. Both the teams have qualified for the Super Four stage but this encounter will just have more to it. A lot of eyes will be on Team India’s combination who struggled against Hong Kong last night. However, RP Singh has picked his playing XI ahead of the game and thinks that they should be able to beat Pakistan.

India went in with a pretty inexperienced bowling attack in their tournament opener and almost paid the price for it. Hong Kong put up an excellent show while chasing 286 runs and kept them in the field for the whole 50 overs. At one stage, it even looked like it will be a one-sided affair with the way their openers were gunning down the total. It will be interesting to see if the Men in Blue will make wholesale changes for this all-important game.

What is RP’s XI?

Rohit Sharma will continue to open the innings along with Shikhar Dhawan as both of them are exceptional in this format according to RP Singh. He wanted Ambati Rayudu to play at number three again as he notched up an impressive half-century to announce his comeback to the Indian team. However, the former left-arm Indian pacer wanted KL Rahul to bat at the much-debated number 4 spot after which MS Dhoni will follow.

He was of the opinion that the veteran wicketkeeper-batsman will be able to control the innings at that position. Hardik Pandya and Kedar Jadhav are the all-rounders in the team after which the trio of Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Yuzvendra Chahal and Kuldeep Yadav retain their place in the side. Khaleel Ahmed impressed RP Singh but he felt that the youngster has to make way for Jasprit Bumrah who was rested last night.

Here’s RP’s predicted XI: Rohit Sharma (c), Shikhar Dhawan, Ambati Rayudu, KL Rahul, MS Dhoni (wk), Kedar Jadhav, Hardik Pandya, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Jasprit Bumrah

Here’s the video:

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