India will face Hong Kong in their second game of the 2017 Asia Cup on Wednesday after defeating Pakistan by five wickets on Sunday. The management of the Indian squad will still have to cope with the selection problem because not all of the players chosen for the starting XI in the match against Pakistan delivered on expectations. As a result, some in-form players were forced to warm the benches. Rohit Sharma scored 12 runs off of 18 balls, and KL Rahul was out for a first-ball duck, giving India's top two a pitiful contribution.
India chose Dinesh Karthik over Rishabh Pant, their customary wicketkeeper-batter, for the high-stakes match against Pakistan. Will Pant be given a chance in the second game by the management? Who will make room for the southpaw if he makes it onto the squad? Will KL Rahul be there?
Nizakat Khan, the skipper of Hong Kong, came perilously close to a century against India four years ago. However, he has been playing well in the weeks leading up to his game, including a century against Jersey in an ICC Challenger League B match three weeks ago. He recently provided the foundation for a chase against Kuwait in the Asia Cup qualifiers in Oman with a half-century.
Here is India's predicted Playing XI:
India (probable): 1 Rohit Sharma (capt), 2 KL Rahul, 3 Virat Kohli, 4 Rishabh Pant (wk), 5 Deepak Hooda, 6 Hardik Pandya, 7 Dinesh Karthik, 8 R Ashwin, 9 Avesh Khan, 10 Ravi Bishnoi, 11 Arshdeep Singh.
Here is Hong Kong's predicted Playing XI:
Hong Kong (probable): 1 Nizakat Khan, 2 Babar Hayat, 3 Yasmin Murtaza, 4 Kinchit Shah, 5 Scott McKechnie (wk), 6 Haroon Arshad, 7 Aizaz Khan, 8 Zeeshan Ali, 9 Ehsan Khan, 10 Ayush Shukla, 11 Mohammad Ghazanfar.
Fast bowler of India, batsmen used to be 'helpless' in front of whose inswing