Pakistan has decided to field the same playing eleven against archrivals India that thrashed Nepal in the opening match of the Asia Cup. They will meet on Saturday (tomorrow) at the Pallekele International Cricket Stadium.

The co-hosts of the regional event would go with three pacers, two spin-bowling all-rounders, and two batting all-rounders, said the national cricket board wrote on social media. Babar Azam would lead the side.

The world’s number one side beat Nepal by 238 runs in the opening game of the regional event in Multan on Wednesday. Skipper Babar Azam led from the front and second-best score of the tournament’s history.

He smashed 151 runs off 131-ball for his 19th one-day-international (ODI) hundred. The Green Shirts put a total of 342 for Nepal on the board.

Pakistan bundled out Nepal for a mere 104 in 23.4 overs with leg-spinner Shadab Khan taking 4-27 while the pace duo of Haris Rauf took 2-16 and Shaheen Shah Afridi 2-27.

“This game was good preparation for the India game because it gave us confidence,” Babar, who was named Player of the Match for his 19th one-day hundred, said earlier this week.

He was of the view that India-Pakistan would always bring high intensity and his side wanted to give 100% in every match. The top-ranked ODI batter hoped to do that there as well.

India captain Rohit Sharma played down hype around the high-voltage contest against Pakistan, saying their focus is on using the tournament to fine-tune their preparations for the home World Cup later this year.

“Rivalry is there for people to talk about. For us, we don’t want to look into all those things,” the opener deadpanned in the pre-match press conference on Friday.

“What we, as Team India, want to focus on is we have an opposition to play tomorrow, how we can perform (well)… rather than looking at all sorts of other things, which eventually is not going to help you. What is going to help us is - keep doing the right things on the pitch and make the right decisions that take us forward as a team.”