Pakistan unchanged, Yuvraj and Ishant return for India

Pakistan v India, Group B, Asia Cup, Karachi

Shoaib Malik chose to bat in Pakistan's final group match against India in Karachi. Both teams have beaten Hong Kong to qualify from their group but this match is nevertheless significant: today's winner will carry forward two points into the next round, giving them a head start in qualifying for the final.

Yuvraj Singh is back in India's middle order after resting for the match against Hong Kong

India have made two changes: Yuvraj Singh and Ishant Sharma, who were rested for the game against Hong Kong, have replaced Robin Uthappa and Manpreet Gony. Irfan Pathan has a side strain and has been left out of today's game. Rohit Sharma, who had a poor Kitply Cup in Bangladesh and struggled for 11 off 29 balls against Hong Kong, has been given another chance.

Pakistan have retained the same XI that beat Hong Kong by 155 runs. They opened with Shoaib Malik and Salman Butt in that match but their top order struggled against Hong Kong's attack. Today's pitch is expected to be flat but the ball may not come on to the bat which means the batsmen will have to generate their own pace. Mahendra Singh Dhoni also said that the pitch could get slower as the match progresses with the spinners coming into play. Pakistan have one specialist spinner in Shahid Afridi with Malik and Fawad Alam providing the back-up options.

India's record at the National Stadium has been impressive: they've won their last three matches here and their last defeat against Pakistan was in 1983. They have also had the better of recent exchanges with Pakistan, winning nine out of 14 matches since 2006. However, Pakistan put in a powerful performance to beat India in their most recent clash, during the Kitply Cup final in Bangladesh.

Pakistan: 1 Salman Butt, 2 Shoaib Malik (capt), 3 Younis Khan, 4 Mohammad Yousuf, 5 Misbah-ul-Haq, 6 Fawad Alam, 7 Shahid Afridi, 8 Sarfraz Ahmed (wk), 9 Sohail Tanvir, 10 Umar Gul, 11 Rao Iftikhar.

India: 1 Virender Sehwag, 2 Gautam Gambhir, 3 Rohit Sharma, 4 Mahendra Singh Dhoni (capt & wk), 5 Yuvraj Singh, 6 Suresh Raina, 7 Yusuf Pathan, 8 Piyush Chawla, 9 Praveen Kumar, 10 Ishant Sharma, 11 RP Singh.

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