Pakistan ask Netherlands to bat in T20 World Cup opener

Toss Pakistan chose to bowl vs Netherlands

Pakistan have won the toss and opted to bowl first against Netherlands in the T20 World Cup 2026 opener at SSC in Colombo. The rain has stayed away so far, and in searingly hot conditions, Salman Agha chose to insert Netherlands in what he described as unusual conditions for Sri Lanka.

"It looks like a fresh pitch and there's been rain for a few days, so if there's any moisture we want to use that," Agha said at the toss. "It's the first time I've seen that much grass in Sri Lanka."

Pakistan have gone in with three seam bowlers given the extra assistance for seam, with Shaheen Shah Afridi, Salman Mirza and Faheem Ashraf in the starting XI.

Netherlands captain Scott Edwards called it "a very good batting wicket". He admitted he would have looked to bowl first too, but "we're happy to be batting here". "We've been in India and SL for a month and a half, used to the conditions," he said. "Plenty of allrounders and options for bowling and batting."

Pakistan: 1 Sahibzada Farhan 2 Saim Ayub 3 Salman Ali Agha (capt) 4 Babar Azam 5 Usman Khan (wk) 6 Shadab Khan 7 Mohammad Nawaz 8 Faheem Ashraf 9 Shaheen Afridi 10 Salman Mirza 11 Abrar Ahmed

Netherlands: 1 Michael Levitt, 2 Max O'Dowd, 3 Colin Ackermann, 4 Scott Edwards (capt, wk), 5 Bas de Leede, 6 Zach Lion-Cachet, 7 Logan van Beek, 8 Roelof van Der Merwe, 9 Kyle Klein, 10 Aryan Dutt, 11 Paul van Meekeren