Pakistan bats first against spin-heavy Afghanistan at the Cricket World Cup

CHENNAI, India (AP) — Pakistan captain Babar Azam won the toss and chose to bat first against spin-heavy Afghanistan at the Cricket World Cup on Monday.

Afghanistan is languishing at the bottom of the points table. It has two points from four games after it stunned defending champion England by 69 runs.

Afghanistan went with four spinners in the hope that the dry pitch will help slow bowlers. It gave spinner Noor Ahmed his first game in the tournament.

Ahmed replaced Fazalhaq Farooqi and will be challenging Pakistan with Rashid Khan, Mujeeb Ur Rahman and Mohammad Nabi as the other spin options.

Afghanistan captain Hashmatullah Shahidi also wanted to bat first, but said the “toss is not in our hand and you have to play good cricket.”

Pakistan, which has four points from its two victories against Netherlands and Sri Lanka, is looking to put its campaign back on track