"Clear planning to stop Kohli from breaking Sachin Tendulkar's record" - Fans react as India captain opts to bowl in Asia Cup 2023 match vs Nepal

India are squaring off against Nepal in the fifth match of Asia Cup 2023 at the Pallekele International Cricket Stadium in Kandy on Monday, September 4. It is a virtual knockout match as the winner advances to the Super Four stage while the loser will exit from the tournament.

Rohit Sharma won the toss and opted to bowl first in this crucial encounter. Mohammed Shami replaced Jasprit Bumrah in the Indian playing XI for this game. Bumrah was unavailable as he had traveled to Mumbai to be with his wife as they welcomed their first-born child, baby boy Angad, earlier on Monday.

A section of fans were not pleased with the Indian captain's decision to bowl first in the match against Nepal. They felt that the top-order batters needed game time to get into the groove as they collapsed meekly in the previous game against Pakistan.

Here are some of the Twitter reactions on the matter:

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"We want our bowlers to come out and have some game time"- Indian captain Rohit Sharma ahead of match vs Nepal

Team India skipper Rohit Sharma revealed that the management wanted the bowlers to have some game time in the middle, which influenced his decision to bowl after winning the toss.

At the toss, Rohit said:

"We will bowl first. There is no particular reason for it. We batted in the last game. We want our bowlers to come out and have some game time out in the middle this time."

He added:

"There were lots of positives of course in the last game for us. The way we batted under pressure, especially Ishan Kishan batted with a lot of maturity and Hardik Pandya again, showed his quality under pressure. Good signs for us. It's another important game for us. We have one change - Shami comes in for Jasprit Bumrah."

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Here are the playing XIs:

India XI: Rohit Sharma(c), Shubman Gill, Ishan Kishan(w), Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj

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Nepal XI: Kushal Bhurtel, Aasif Sheikh(w), Rohit Paudel(c), Bhim Sharki, Sompal Kami, Gulsan Jha, Dipendra Singh Airee, Kushal Malla, Sandeep Lamichhane, Karan KC, Lalit Rajbanshi