Operation White ball: India elects to bowl, Bumrah returns to the squad as Pandya dropped

Dubai (The Uttam Hindu) – India won the toss and elected to bowl first against Pakistan in the Asia Cup 2025 title match. The Indian team made three changes to the squad for this historic match, which will be played at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium on Sunday.

Hardik Pandya is not playing in this title match. Harshit Rana and Arshdeep Singh have also been ruled out of this match. Jasprit Bumrah and Shivam Dubey have returned in their place, while Rinku Singh has been given a chance. Pakistan has not made any changes to its team. Indian opener Abhishek Sharma is in excellent form at the moment. This young player has scored 309 runs at an average of 51.50. Abhishek has scored half-centuries in three consecutive Super-4 matches. Therefore, the team will have high expectations from this player. The opening pair of Abhishek Sharma and Shubman Gill can give India a strong start. Apart from these, captain Suryakumar Yadav is expected to be a great batsman. Kuldeep Yadav can trouble the Pakistani team with the ball.

India has remained unbeaten in the Asia Cup 2025 so far. Team India started its group stage with a brilliant 9-wicket win against UAE. After this, it defeated Pakistan by 7 wickets. Team India won the match against Oman by 21 runs. In the Super-4, India defeated Pakistan by 6 wickets. After this, it won the match against Bangladesh by 41 runs, while it won the match against Sri Lanka in the Super Over. On the other hand, after winning the match against Oman by 93 runs, Pakistan lost the next match against India by 7 wickets. After this, Pakistan won against UAE by 41 runs.

Pakistan lost to India by 6 wickets in the Super Four. They then defeated Sri Lanka by 5 wickets and Bangladesh by 11 runs to reach the final.

India's playing XI: Abhishek Sharma, Shubman Gill, Suryakumar Yadav (captain), Tilak Varma, Sanju Samson (wicketkeeper), Shivam Dubey, Rinku Singh, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah and Varun Chakravarthy.

Pakistan's playing XI: Sahibzada Farhan, Fakhar Zaman, Saim Ayub, Salman Agha (captain), Hussain Talat, Mohammad Haris (wicketkeeper), Mohammad Nawaz, Faheem Ashraf, Shaheen Afridi, Haris Rauf and Abrar Ahmed