India vs Pakistan Asia Cup 2023 cricket: Rain may play spoilsport. Latest weather updates from Sri Lanka

Rain could play spoilsport in Saturday’s much-anticipated India-Pakistan Asia Cup encounter to be played at Pallekele Cricket Stadium, Kandy, Sri Lanka. The match is scheduled to start at 3 pm. This will be be the first OCI encounter between the two sides since the 2019 World Cup. Weather agencies are predicting moderate-to-heavy showers in Kandy at the weekend. AccuWeather has pegged the probability of precipitation/rains at Pallekele at 84%. “Considerable cloudiness with rain and drizzle, mainly early,” the weather agency said. In that case, the match could see a delayed start.

World Weather Online has also forecast patchy rain in Kandy on Saturday.

Pakistan will be fielding an unchanged side that thrashed Nepal by 238 runs in their opening game on Wednesday. In their first match against Nepal, Pakistan made 342 for 6 riding on hundreds by captain Babar Azam (151) and Iftikhar Ahmed (109 not out) and later Babar Azam’s side bundled out Nepal for 104 with Shadab Khan taking four wickets. Pakistan is currently ranked World No 1 ODI side.

Pakistan playing XI: Babar Azam (captain), Shadab Khan (vice-captain), Fakhar Zaman, Imam-ul-Haq, Salman Agha, Iftikhar Ahmed, Mohammad Rizwan, Mohammed Nawaz, Naseem Shah, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Haris Rauf.

India’s captain Rohit Sharma ahead of the match acknowledged the opposition’s quality and relished the challenge. “It (Pakistan) is a good team, they have performed well since the past few years including the T20 World Cup or the 50-over format,” said Rohit. “It will be a good challenge for us to play against such a team and perform. We have prepared well and will execute what we have worked on.”

India’s squad for Asia Cup: Rohit Sharma (Captain), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Suryakumar Yadav, Tilak Varma, KL Rahul, Ishan Kishan, Hardik Pandya (VC), Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohd. Shami, Mohd. Siraj, Prasidh Krishna. (With Agency Inputs)