Asia Cup 2023: Rain may ruin much-awaited India vs Pakistan clash

Kandy [Sri Lanka]: Rain may ruin the excitement of fans for the big clash between India and Pakistan in the Asia Cup 2023 as the weather forecast predicted rainfall on Saturday.

On Friday the weather was cloudy and there is no prediction of clear weather for Saturday ahead of the much-anticipated match. However, India and Pakistan will come for the practice session on Friday after the pre-match press conference.

Weather.com has predicted Thunderstorms with an 80 percent chance of rain for the region of Kandy on Saturday.

India will open their Asia Cup Campaign against the arch-rival Pakistan on Saturday in Kandy. The arch-rivals face each other for the first time since the T20i World Cup 2022 last year.

Pakistan, India and Nepal are in Group A while Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Sri Lanka are in Group B.

The tournament will follow a hybrid model with Pakistan hosting four matches across two venues and Sri Lanka hosting the remaining games. The six group-stage matches will be followed by the Super Fours beginning September 6.

The final will be played by the top two teams at the end of the Super Fours on September 17 in Colombo.

Indian Squad: Rohit Sharma (captain), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul, Suryakumar Yadav, Tilak Varma, Ishan Kishan, Hardik Pandya (vice-captain), Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Shardul Thakur, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammad Shami, Mohammed Siraj, Kuldeep Yadav, Prasidh Krishna.

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).