Rohit opts to bowl in front of massive MCG crowd

A capacity crowd has filed into the Melbourne Cricket Ground to witness the blockbuster T20 World Cup match between India and Pakistan.  

What loomed as a soggy affair with the forecast looking dire earlier in the week now shapes as a full match under cloudy Melbourne skies.  

Thousands of fans gathered outside the ground as early as five hours before the first ball, with a sea of blue and green slow migrating into the arena after hours and singing and chanting.  

India XI: Rohit Sharma (c), KL Rahul, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Axar Patel, Ravichandran Ashwin, Mohammed Shami, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Arshdeep Singh 

Pakistan XI: Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Babar Azam (c), Shan Masood, Shadab Khan, Haider Ali, Iftikhar Ahmed, Asif Ali, Mohammad Nawaz, Naseem Shah, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Haris Rauf 

At the toss, India captain Rohit Sharma won the toss and chose to bowl first without hesitation.  

In men's T20 internationals at the MCG, that team that has bowled first has won nine times, with one no result. 

India have gone as expected with the inclusion of Ravichandran Ashwin over Yuzvendra Chahal perhaps the only surprise.  

Pakistan too are lining up as predicted, with the prolific opening partnership of Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan getting first crack on the Melbourne wicket.  

The MCG's record attendance for a cricket match of 93,013, who saw Australia defeat New Zealand in the final of the 2015 men's ODI World Cup, is in danger with extra standing room tickets being released for this contest last month.  

This is the first match in Group 2 of the Super 12s stage, with South Africa, Bangladesh and qualifiers Zimbabwe and Netherlands making up the rest of the group.  

Men's T20 World Cup 2022

Australia squad: Ashton Agar, Pat Cummins, Tim David, Aaron Finch (c), Cameron Green, Josh Hazlewood, Mitchell Marsh, Glenn Maxwell, Kane Richardson, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, Marcus Stoinis, Matthew Wade, David Warner, Adam Zampa

Australia's T20 World Cup 2022 fixtures

Oct 22: New Zealand defeat Australia by 89 runs

Oct 25: v Sri Lanka, Optus Stadium, 10pm AEDT

Oct 28: v England, MCG, 7pm AEDT

Oct 31: v Ireland, Gabba, 7pm AEDT

Nov 4: v Afghanistan, Adelaide Oval, 7pm AEDT

Click here for a full 2022 T20 World Cup fixture