Pallekele (Sri Lanka) | India captain Rohit Sharma won the toss and opted to bat against Pakistan in their much-anticipated Asia Cup opener here on Saturday.

Shreyas Iyer is back in the Indian middle-order after a long injury layoff and so is Jasprit Bumrah to lead the pace attack in the company of Mohammed Siraj and Shardul Thakur.

India are also playing two spinners in Kuldeep Yadav and Ravindra Jadeja.

Pakistan have retained the playing XI that thrashed Nepal in their opening match of the tournament.

Teams:

India: Rohit Sharma (capt), Shubman Gill, Ishan Kishan (wk), Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj.

Pakistan: Fakhar Zaman, Imam-ul-Haq, Babar Azam (capt), Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Agha Salman, Iftikhar Ahmed, Shadab Khan, Mohammad Nawaz, Shaheen Afridi, Naseem Shah, Haris Rauf

A second spell of rain halted play when India were struggling at 51 for three in 11.2 overs in the Asia Cup clash against Pakistan here on Saturday.

Rain returned to the Pallekele International Cricket Stadium in the 12th over after a skillful spell of fast bowling from Shaheen Afridi sent the Indian batting mainstays Rohit Sharma (11 off 22) and Virat Kohli (4 off 7), back into the dressing room.

The third batter to be dismissed was Shreyas Iyer (14 off 9) who pulled a shot ball from Haris Rauf straight to the midwicket fielder. Shubman Gill and Ishan Kishan were batting on six and two respectively.

The first stoppage due to rain came when India reached 15 for no loss.