BENGALURU, India (AP) — Pakistan dropped out of form vice captain Shadab Khan as captain Babar Azam won the toss and elected to field against Australia in the fourth game for both teams at the Cricket World Cup on Friday.
Shadab has been struggling to get wickets from his legspin bowling this year and was also unimpressive with the bat in Pakistan’s long middle-order batting line-up.
Legspinner Usama Mir replaced Shadab in the only change Pakistan made from the team which was routed by archrival India in what supposed to be the marquee game of the World Cup.
Babar played down the axing of allrounder Shadab before the midway point of the tournament, saying he wanted to try out different combinations.
Pakistan, winner of the World Cup in 1992, started off its campaign with two victories over qualifiers – the Netherlands and Sri Lanka – before succumbing against India in front of a partisan crowd of over 100,000 in Ahmedabad.
Injuries and illness has struck Pakistan since it arrived in Bengaluru with Fakhar Zaman yet to recover from a knee injury and Salman Ali Agha down with a fever. Abdullah Shafique and Saud Shakeel recovered from the flu and were included in the playing XI.
Australia enjoys a 6-4 record against Pakistan at the World Cup, winning four of its last five matches. Pakistan is in fourth place with four points from three games, while Australia rose to sixth with one win in three games
Australia kept faith in the same team which brought its campaign back on track with a win over Sri Lanka. Captain Pat Cummins said he was happy to bat first after his batters showed plenty of intent against Sri Lanka.
Australia failed to cross the 200-run mark in its first two losses against India and South Africa before it got its act together against Sri Lanka..
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Line-ups:
Australia: Mitchell Marsh, David Warner, Steven Smith, Marnus Labuschagne, Josh Inglis, Glenn Maxwell, Marcus Stoinis, Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins (captain), Adam Zampa, Josh Hazlewood
Pakistan: Abdullah Shafique, Imam-ul-Haq, Babar Azam (captain), Mohammad Rizwan, Saud Shakeel, Iftikhar Ahmed, Mohammad Nawaz, Hasan Ali, Usama Mir, Shaheen Afridi, Haris Rauf
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AP cricket: https://apnews.com/hub/cricket
