admin 
(MANEND NEWS): Pakistan won the toss and decided to bat first against Nepal in the opening match of the Asia Cup 2023 in Multan on Wednesday.
Nepal, as a team, and Multan, as a venue, will make their debut in the Asia Cup. It is also the first match between Pakistan and Nepal at the top level.
Pakistan enter the Asia Cup on a high as they topped the ICC rankings for ODI teams on Saturday after a 3-0 clean sweep over Afghanistan in Sri Lanka. This is the second time the Pakistan team topped the chart since April.
“We will bat first, pitch looks very dry and shiny. No reason to name the XI earlier, we wanted to give confidence to our team. To be honest, being the top ranked team brings a good kind of pressure, we’ll try to enjoy and do our best,” Pakistan captain Babar Azam said at the toss.
Nepal: Kushal Bhurtel, Aasif Sheikh (wk), Rohit Paudel (c), Aarif Sheikh, Kushal Malla, Dipendra Singh Airee, Gulsan Jha, Sompal Kami, Karan KC, Sandeep Lamichhane, Lalit Rajbanshi
Pakistan: Fakhar Zaman, Imam-ul-Haq, Babar Azam (c), Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Agha Salman, Iftikhar Ahmed, Shadab Khan, Mohammad Nawaz, Shaheen Afridi, Naseem Shah, Haris Rauf.