Pakistan win toss, choose to field against India in T20 World Cup blockbuster in Dubai

Pakistan's cricketers celebrate the dismissal of India's Suryakumar Yadav during the Cricket Twenty20 World Cup match between India and Pakistan in Dubai, UAE, on October 24, 2021. (AP)

• Pakistan have lost all seven World Cup clashes against India as well as five T20 World Cup games
• The two nations are political foes and have one of the most intense sports rivalries in the world

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan have won the toss and chosen to field first against India in the high-octane Twenty20 World Cup opener in Dubai, watched by an expected one billion television viewers. 
India have beaten Pakistan in all of their 12 matches at the T20 and 50-over World Cups. 
Pakistan, however, go into the contest with 10 wins in a row in the United Arab Emirates, their home away from home for most of the last decade. 
This is the first time the two nations clash since the 50-over World Cup in 2019. 
Of the 12 World Cup losses for Pakistan, five have been at the T20 tournament. 
Two were at the inaugural event in 2007 — a tied group game decided by a ‘bowl-out’ and a five-run loss in the final. 
Pakistani captain Babar Azam is looking to break their World Cup jinx against India, with Babar, Mohammad Rizwan and Fakhar Zaman holding the team’s batting key while quicks Shaheen Shah Afridi and Hasan Ali will lead a potent bowling attack. 
Indian captain Virat Kohli says regardless of past record, Pakistan is and always has been packed with talented players. 
The tournament is Kohli’s last as captain of the national T20 side. 
“Our focus is to play well in this World Cup and do what we need to do as a team,” Kohli told reporters on the eve of the much-anticipated clash. 
Babar told reporters this week the past was irrelevant to them. 
“To be honest, what has passed is beyond us,” he said at a virtual media conference on Saturday, as both nations buzzed in anticipation of a thrilling match. “We want to use our ability and confidence on the day of the match so that we can get a better result. 
“Records are meant to be broken.” 
Strained relations between the two nations, who were one country before the partition of British India split them into India and Pakistan in 1947, and a decades-long dispute over the Himalayan valley of Kashmir, has laid the foundations of one of the most intense sports rivalries in the world. 
Pakistan and India have not played a bilateral Test series since 2008 when already brittle ties were shattered by the Mumbai terror attacks. 
The tickets for Sunday’s match were sold out within hours of going on sale after the United Arab Emirate government allowed a 70 percent crowd for the Twenty20 World Cup matches in a relaxation of the COVID-19 restrictions. 
Babar said Pakistan’s prime minister Imran Khan — who led the country to victory in the 1992 World Cup — had shared his experiences with the team. 
“The prime minister met us before our departure and shared his experiences of the 1992 win,” he said, “and told us to play aggressive and fearless cricket against India.”