Colombo, February 15: In a high-stakes match against Pakistan, Indian opener Abhishek Sharma returned to the pavilion without scoring a run. The 25-year-old was sidelined due to a stomach infection during the game against Namibia, but upon his return, he faced only four balls before being caught by Pakistani captain Salman Agha off Shaheen Afridi’s bowling.

This marks the sixth consecutive T20 international match where Abhishek has failed to open his account, having played two matches in this World Cup without scoring. In the previous match against the USA, he was dismissed on the very first ball.

In his last four outings against New Zealand, Abhishek scored 0 (1), 68* (20), 0 (1), and 30 (16), totaling just 98 runs in his last six T20 innings.

All three matches held at the R. Premadasa Stadium in this World Cup have been won by the team batting first. Interestingly, in the eight T20 internationals played at this venue prior to the World Cup, all matches were won by the chasing teams.

The Indian team made two changes for this match, bringing in Abhishek Sharma in place of Sanju Samson, while Kuldeep Yadav replaced Arshdeep Singh. Under the captaincy of Suryakumar Yadav, the team included Abhishek Sharma, Ishan Kishan (wicketkeeper), Tilak Varma, Hardik Pandya, Shivam Dube, Rinku Singh, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Varun Chakravarthy, and Jasprit Bumrah.

On the other hand, the Pakistani team entered the match unchanged, with Salman Agha leading a squad that included Sam Ayub, Sahibzada Farhan, Babar Azam, Mohammad Nawaz, Shadab Khan, Faheem Ashraf, Usman Khan (wicketkeeper), Shaheen Afridi, Abrar Ahmed, and Usman Tariq.

To date, India and Pakistan have played a total of eight T20 matches, with India winning seven and Pakistan securing one victory.

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