Asia Cup 2023: Asian Powerhouses India-Pakistan All Set To Clash Amid Rain Threat (image: twitter.com/bcci)
Asian powerhouses India-Pakistan is all set to crack fireworks and the high voltage atmosphere promises to escalate a notch higher as this will be first time the teams meeting up since 2019 ODI’s. All eyes on the field when Rohit Sharma and Babar Azam walks out for the toss.
The big ticket clash will resume soon, but over the past two days Pallekele is facing an extremely gloomy weather with dark clouds hovering around. Although the rain has stayed away since Thursday, the forecast was rather bleak for Saturday evening with 90 per cent of rain predicted till 6 pm.
So far the chances of a washout looks far-fetched. As per the AccuWeather report, there is a 40-60 percentage of rain forecast during the toss but the weather is set to improve through the course of the day. The locals has confirmed that this sight means a passing shower that may last for half and hour or one. In case of rain around, most captains who win the toss decide to bowl first as they can get a clear picture of where they stand at the half-way stage.
“We saw a bit of swing, bit of spin, we saw everything. And that is always challenging, you know, it’s always going to challenge the batters. Luckily, we’ve got experience in our batting line-up. I will let that experience come in play and play accordingly. Yes, I’ve said that we want to try and take the game on but you know, it’s important to read the situation conditions as well, because, you know, it’s not a T20 format, it’s a 50-over format so you have to apply for a little longer than T20 cricket. So, the whole idea of, is allowing them to be themselves and let them play their game,” Indian Captain Rohit Sharma said.
If the match ends up in an unfortunate event of washout, both the teams will secure one point. And Pakistan will enter to Semifinals due to their win over Nepal in the last match while Indian will be left in a do or die situation. India will have to defeat Nepal to proceed or will be eliminated.Pakistan has decided to send down the same team that thrashed Nepal by 238 runs in their opening game on Wednesday.
Squads
India: Rohit Sharma (c), Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul, Shubman Gill, Suryakumar Yadav, Tilak Varma, Ishan Kishan, Hardik Pandya (vc), Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Shardul Thakur, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj, Kuldeep Yadav, Prasidh Krishna, Sanju Samson (travelling reserve).
Pakistan: Babar Azam (c), Abdullah Shafique, Fakhar Zaman, Imam-ul-Haq, Salman Ali Agha, Iftikhar Ahmed, Mohammad Rizwan, Mohammad Haris, Shadab Khan, Mohammad Nawaz, Usama Mir, Faheem Ashraf, Haris Rauf, Mohammad Wasim Jnr, Naseem Shah, Shaheen Afridi, Saud Shakeel, Tayyab Tahir (travelling reserve).
