The Asian Cricket Council (ACC) released the Asia Cup 2023 schedule a few days back and one of the most exciting battles in the first round of the competition will be between arch-rivals India and Pakistan. The marquee event will be held on September 2 in Kandy, Sri Lanka. Notably, India will not play any of the four matches scheduled to be played in Pakistan. In case you don’t know, both Pakistan and Sri Lanka are hosting the Asia Cup after India refused to travel to Pakistan, who were the hosts.
Another interesting point to note here is that India and Pakistan are ranked A2 and A1 and they are likely to clash in the next round which is also the Super 4. The match between A2 and A1 is in Colombo on 10 September. If either India or Pakistan do not qualify, Nepal will take their place.
The India head coach’s reaction to the Men in Blue’s chances of defeating Pakistan and winning the Asia Cup was posted on BCCI’s social media. He said the team’s first focus would be to qualify for the Super 4s and then look at playing Pakistan thrice in the tournament.
_ Together #AsiaCup2023 Fixtures announced, here’s what #TeamIndia Head coach Rahul Dravid said pic.twitter.com/ycEWukD5zW— BCCI (@BCCI) 19 July 2023
“The schedule has arrived. You have to play Pakistan three times to qualify for Super Force. One step at a time, I don’t believe in counting my chickens too much. I know we are going to play Pakistan and Nepal.” First two matches, so we need to focus on that. We need to win those matches and see where the tournament goes,” Dravid told reporters in a video posted by the BCCI.
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Dravid said it would be great to play Pakistan in the final of the Asia Cup. He also said that if they reach the final, it would mean that India played good cricket in the tournament.
“If we get a chance to play them three times, that’s fantastic. It would mean we reach the final of the tournament and hopefully Pakistan do as well. It’s going to be a great competition, and we’re definitely looking to play till the final.” We want to win it. But to do that we have to take two steps first,” Dravid said.