Pakistan to play India in Asia Cup on Sept 21

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan and Indian cricketers would be face to face in the Asia Cup pool match on September 21 in UAE.

The event, that was originally scheduled to be held in India, was shifted to UAE with Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) retaining the hosting rights.

India and Pakistan have been placed in Pool A along with one qualifier to be decided before the start of event and at the qualification stage.

Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Afghanistan have been placed in Group B.

The tournament will get underway with Pakistan playing qualifier on the opening day on September 18.

After playing the One-Day series against Zimbabwe that starts from Friday, Pakistan cricketers will have 20 days’ rest before joining the camp meant for the preparations of the Asia Cup.

Indian board will host Asia Cup 2018 in the United Arab Emirates after a unanimous decision was made during a meeting of the executive board of the Asian Cricket Council (ACC) in April.

The BCCI statement also confirmed that the tournament would revert to the One-Day format. The previous edition in 2016 was a T20I tournament, largely to facilitate teams’ preparations for the ICC World T20 2016 that followed.

The Asian full member countries will be joined by the winner of qualifying tournament, with Hong Kong, Singapore, Oman, Nepal, UAE and Malaysia set to fight it out for the final spot.