Pakistan and the Netherlands face off today at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad in their opening match of the ICC World Cup 2023.
Pakistan (Playing XI)
Babar Azam (C)
Mohammad Rizwan (WK)
Imam-ul-Haq
Fakhar Zaman
Saud Shakeel
Iftikhar Ahmed
Shadab Khan
Mohammad Nawaz
Hasan Ali
Shaheen Afridi
Haris Rauf
Netherlands (Playing XI)
Scott Edwards (C/WK)
Vikramjit Singh
Max O’Dowd
Colin Ackermann
Bas de Leede
Teja Nidamanuru
Saqib Zulfiqar
Logan van Beek
Roelof van der Merwe
Aryan Dutt
Paul van Meekeren
The Netherlands had a busy ODI schedule between March and July this year, facing Zimbabwe and South Africa before playing in the World Cup qualifiers. They had two warm-up matches before this tournament, both of which were rained out. They could play a few overs in their first match against Australia, but their warm-up against India was washed out without a toss even taking place. Pakistan, on the other hand, could play two full warm-up matches, both of which were in Hyderabad, so they will now be quite familiar with the conditions.
The tournament started on Thursday with New Zealand handing defending champions England a 10-wicket thrashing. England had made a competitive total of 282/9, but New Zealand made a mockery of that. Devon Conway scored an unbeaten 152 off 121 balls, while Rachin Ravindra was not out on 123 in 96, and the pair led the Kiwis to the target in just 36.2 overs. Their unbeaten second-wicket stand stood at 273 off 211 balls at the end of the match. Pakistan will be hoping that they too can get a dominant win under their belt and thus get an early boost for their net run rate.
Here are some pointers for the Pakistan vs Netherlands 2023 World Cup match:
- The Netherlands won the toss and chose to bowl first.
- The match is being played in Hyderabad.
- The game is scheduled to start at 2pm, with the toss set to take place at 1.30pm.
- Pakistan have never won a World Cup game in India.
- The tournament started with New Zealand thrashing England by nine wickets, in a reversal of the result of the 2019 World Cup final.
- All eyes are on vice-captain Shadab Khan, who has been struggling for form in recent games.
