Pakistan wins toss, choose to bat in first ODI

Guwahati, Nov 5 (UNI) Pakistan captain Shoaib Malik won the toss and elected to bat in the first ODI of the five match series against India here today.

India left out Virender Sehwag and chose to go with in-form Gautam Gambhir instead. Rohit Sharma, Praveen Kumar and Sreesanth were the others to miss out. India choose two spinners and two seamers, with Irfan Pathan playing the role of an all-rounder.

Pakistan is playing four front-line bowlers in Shoaib Akhtar, Rao Iftikhar Anjum, Umar Gul and Abdur Rehman, which means that Shahid Afridi and Shoaib Malik would have to play a major role in the spin bowling department.

Pakistan also recalled left-handed opener Salman Butt in the team in place of Imran Nazir.

Teams India: Mahendra Singh Dhoni (captain), Sachin Tendulkar, Saurav Ganguly, Gautam Gambhir, Yuvraj Singh, Robin Uthappa, Irfan Pathan, Harbhajan Singh, Murali Kartik, Rudra Pratap Singh, Zaheer Khan.

Pakistan: Shoaib Malik (captain), Salman Butt, Kamran Akmal, Younis Khan, Mohammad Yousuf, Shahid Afridi, Misbah-ul Haq, Umar Gul, Rao Iftikhar Anjum, Abdur Rehman, Shoaib Akhtar.

UNI