Rohit Sharma’s men are all set to lock horns with Babar Azam’s Pakistan for the 50-over Asia Cup 2023 at the Pallekele International Stadium at Kandy, Sri-Lanka. The tournament will undergo in the Hybrid model as proposed by the Cricket Board of Pakistan who are after months of tussle with the BCCI and ACC, hosting the event.
There were major doubts around the participation of India as BCCI’s Honorable Secratary Jay Shah was calling for India to boycott the event due to possible security threats. PCB and BCCI were involved in a tug of war for a long time before the Asian Cricket Council approved the former Board’s Hybrid Model which will see India play their matches outside of Pakistan.
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It is being said that September 2 will be the date for India’s first meeting with Pakistan this year. The tournament is rumored to start from August 30 with Pakistan taking on Nepal for the Asia Cup 2023 opener at Multan. 6-teams will be battling out for Asian glory with Pakistan, India and Nepal in Group A and Sri-Lanka, Afghanistan and Bangladesh drawn in Group B.
Update: Asia Cup 2023 schedule will be announced tomorrow at 08:00 pm NST. Stay tuned for updates!
🇮🇳🇵🇰🇳🇵🇱🇰🇧🇩🇦🇫#AsiaCup #AsiaCup2023 #Cricket #like pic.twitter.com/HNMKwUAeTE— ICC Asia Cricket (@ICCAsiaCricket) July 18, 2023
Top 2 teams from each group will advance to the Super 4s (virtual Semi-Finals) with the winners locking horns in the Final on September 17 at Colombo. Meanwhile, Sri-Lanka and India will enter as defending champions of Asia Cup 2023. How? India had won the 2018 edition which was played in the 50-over format while Sri-Lanka won the tournament in the 20-over format last year at UAE.
Total of 13 matches will be played including the knockouts and all of them are slated to start from 1:30 PM IST.
Asia Cup 2023 meeting between IND and PAK will be a good preparation for both teams ahead of CWC in October
India and Pakistan are slated for 2 confirmed meetings, first in the Asia Cup and second during the ICC Cricket World Cup 2023. The Men in Blue will host Pakistan in a Group stage match at the Narendra Modi Stadium on October 15. It will be a good preparation for the arch-rivals in Asia Cup 2023 as both teams will know what to expect from their bitter enemies.
Pakistan are currently No. 2 in the ICC Men’s ODI rankings while India are right behind them at No. 3 with Australia leading the rankings at No. 1.