The Asian Cricket Council (ACC) releaed the Asia Cup 2023 schedule a couple of days back and one of the most exciting battles in the first round of the competition will be between arch-rivals India and Pakitan. This marquee contest will be on September 2 at Kandy in Sri Lanka. Notably, India do not play any of the four matches scheduled to be played in Pakistan. In case you did not know, both Pakistan and Sri Lanka are hosting the Asia Cup after India's refusal to travel to Pakistan, who were the hosts.
One more interesting thing to note here is that India and Pakistan have been given positions A2 and A1 and they are likely to clash in the next round which is Super 4s too. The clash between A2 and A1 is on September 10 at Colombo. In case India or Pakistan don't qualify then Nepal will take their position.
BCCI's social media posted reaction of India head coach on the chances of Men in Blue beating Pakistan and winning the Asia Cup also. He said that the team's first focus will be to qualify for the Super 4s and then think about playing Pakistan thrice in the tournament.
_ With the #AsiaCup2023 fixtures announced, here's what #TeamIndia Head Coach Rahul Dravid said _ pic.twitter.com/ycEWukD5zW
— BCCI (@BCCI) July 19, 2023
"The schedule is out. You have to qualify for the Super Fours to play Pakistan three times. 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 in the first two games, so we need to focus on that. We need to win those games and see where the tournament goes.," Dravid told reporters in a video posted by the BCCI.
Dravid added that it would be fantastic to play Pakistan in the final of the Asia Cup. He also said that if they reach the final, it would mean that India have played good cricket in the tournament.
"If we get the opportunity to play them three times, it's fantastic. That would mean we reach the final of the tournament and hopefully, Pakistan do too. It would be a great contest, and we certainly want to play right up to the final and win it. But we need to take the first two steps to do that," Dravid said.
