USA chose to bowl vs Pakistan
Adil was approved as a replacement for the injured Jasdeep Singh in the USA squad on Monday night and has been thrown straight into the playing XI, replacing Ali Khan after the groin injury he sustained against India.
USA made one other change from the side that ran India close in Mumbai on Saturday, with Shayan Jahangir replacing Saiteja Mukkamalla at the top of the order. Shubham Ranjane has been passed fit after hobbling off against India and batting on one leg.
Pakistan have packed their side with spin options including unorthodox offspinner Usman Tariq, who replaces left-arm seamer Salman Mirza in their only change from the side that snuck past the Netherlands in their opening match.
“We wanted to give Usman a game,” Salman Agha said. “He’s a match-winner and a trump card for us, so we want to use it.”
The two teams have only faced each other once before in T20Is, when USA secured a memorable victory via a Super Over at the 2024 T20 World Cup. Monank said that his side would take confidence from their memories of that encounter.
“We had a great game, first time playing against Pakistan and the way we played was great to see,” he said. “We want to get that confidence and motivation from that game, and do well in this game.”
USA: 1 Andries Gous (wk), 2 Shayan Jahangir, 3 Monank Patel (capt), 4 Milind Kumar, 5 Shubham Ranjane, 6 Sanjay Krishnamurthi, 7 Harmeet Singh, 8 Mohammad Mohsin, 9 Shadley van Schalkwyk, 10 Saurabh Netravalkar, 11 Ehsan Adil.
Pakistan: 1 Sahibzada Farhan, 2 Saim Ayub, 3 Salman Agha (capt), 4 Babar Azam, 5 Usman Khan (wk), 6 Shadab Khan, 7 Mohammad Nawaz, 8 Faheem Ashraf, 9 Shaheen Afridi, 10 Usman Tariq, 11 Abrar Ahmed.
