Big picture: Face-to-face in ODIs after four years

If someone tells you there are bigger rivalries than India vs Pakistan at the 2023 Asia Cup, do not trust them.

Of late, the Afghanistan vs Pakistan and Sri Lanka vs Bangladesh games might have been spicier on the field, and nastier off it, but the history - both cricketing and otherwise - and the quality of the players make India vs Pakistan arguably the biggest rivalry in world cricket. That they rarely face each other these days makes every match a highly anticipated one.

And that is also one of the reasons why it's not easy to say who the favourites are for Saturday's game in Pallekele.

India WLWLL (last five ODIs, most recent first)
Pakistan WWWWL

In the spotlight: Shreyas Iyer and Shaheen Shah Afridi

Team news: What will India's pace attack look like?

India need to take some tough calls. If they pick Shardul Thakur to lengthen their batting line-up, it would leave just two spots for frontline seamers (assuming Kuldeep Yadav is a certainty). In that case, Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj are likely to get the nod ahead of Mohammed Shami and Prasidh Krishna.

India (probable): 1 Rohit Sharma (capt), 2 Shubman Gill, 3 Virat Kohli, 4 Shreyas Iyer, 5 Ishan Kishan (wk), 6 Hardik Pandya, 7 Ravindra Jadeja, 8 Shardul Thakur/Mohammed Shami, 9 Kuldeep Yadav, 10 Mohammed Siraj, 11 Jasprit Bumrah

Pakistan can consider bringing in Faheem Ashraf for Mohammad Nawaz. But given India are expected to have five right-hand batters in their top six, they may not do so.

Pakistan (probable): 1 Fakhar Zaman, 2 Imam-ul-Haq, 3 Babar Azam (capt), 4 Mohammad Rizwan (wk), 5 Agha Salman, 6 Iftikhar Ahmed, 7 Shadab Khan, 8 Mohammad Nawaz, 9 Shaheen Shah Afridi, 10 Naseem Shah, 11 Haris Rauf

Pitch and conditions: Rain threatens delayed start

The match will be played on a fresh pitch but if it behaves anything like the Sri Lanka-Bangladesh one, with help for both seamers and spinners, good luck to the batters. There's a forecast of rain, though, from early morning till mid-afternoon, which could delay the start.

Stats and trivia: Kohli, Babar on the cusp of milestones