Virat Kohli bats at No. 4 in Irfan Pathan's India XI for IND vs PAK in Asia Cup 2023

Former India all-rounder Irfan Pathan has named his probable XI for the Men in Blue ahead of their clash against Pakistan in the Asia Cup 2023 at Kandy on Saturday. Pathan has slotted Virat Kohli in at No. 4, a position that has had a lot of fans debating.

With KL Rahul still recovering from an injury, Ishan Kishan will be India's wicketkeeper in the clash against Pakistan. Pathan feels it is probably better for Ishan to bat in the top order and push Kohli and Shreyas Iyer to No. 4 and No. 5, respectively.

Here's what Irfan Pathan posted on X:

"Looking at the conditions here in candy this is my playing 11. The actual playing 11 will be different I think. 1) Rohit 2)Gill 3) Ishan 4) Virat 5) Shreyas 6)Jadeja 7) Hardik 8)kuldeep 9) Shami 10)Bumrah 11) Siraj Will explain more in the pre show of the game. #INDvPAK"

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Pakistan are a better team now: Irfan Pathan

Speaking to Star Sports ahead of the India vs Pakistan encounter, Irfan Pathan shed light on how the Men in Green have grown in strength in ODIs over the past years and named the prolific performers for them. He feels it will be a challenge India would relish.

On this, he stated:

"If you see their team has become better now. Along with Babar, Fakhar and Imam, they also now have Iftikhar in the middle order who has been scoring runs and growing in confidence. So when we will beat this team, its significance will be greater.

"In the few years in between, Pakistan weren't that strong a side, but now it will be even more fun to beat them because they have risen in the ranks. It is not just a game. It is an emotion."

Pakistan are coming into the counter against India as the No. 1 ranked ODI team and will want to assert their dominance.