Misfiring Pakistan take on confident USA in their opener

Last edition's runners up Pakistan will take on co-hosts USA in Bridgetown, Barbados in their campagn opener on Thursday.

While on paper, the Babar Azam-led side looks the outright favourite to win the clash, Pakistan's recent form suggests that it might not be a cake walk.

Pakistan lost a T20 International in Ireland and then suffered a 0-2 defeat in England this week, not the ideal result before a global event. Before that, they drew 2-2 at home with a New Zealand side that was missing many of its World Cup squad members.

The run-up to the marquee event has been chaotic to say the least with change in captaincy, shuffling of the top-order and players coming out of retirement.

Babar was reinstated as skipper after Shaheen Afridi was handed the T20 captaincy for a short time. The pacer was offered vice-captaincy later but he refused to take it.

Babar and Mohammad Rizwan are Pakistan's most consistent T20 performers but their strike rate has been a cause of concern as the duo has struggled to accelerate.

But if Pakistan is known to excel in something, it is their unpredictability. They can surprise their opponents and or implode any time.

They will bank heavily on their fiery pace department that features Shaheen Afridi, Naseem Shah, Haris Rauf and Mohammad Amir, who has come out of retirement.

USA will be high on confidence after their seven wicket win in the tournament opener against Canada.

Squads:

Pakistan: Babar Azam, Mohammad Rizwan, Saim Ayub, Fakhar Zaman, Usman Khan, Azam Khan, Iftikhar Ahmed, Imad Wasim, Shadab Khan, Mohammad Amir, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Naseem Shah, Abbas Afridi, Haris Rauf, Abrar Ahmed.

USA: Monak Patel, Shayan Jahangir, Andries Gous, Nitish Kumar, Steven Taylor, Harmeet Singh, Corey Anderson, Milind Kumar, Nisarg Patel, Shadley van Schalkwyk, Ali Khan, Jessy Singh, Saurabh Netravalkar, Nosthush Kenjige.

Match Starts 9pm IST.