The Asia Cup 2023 started with the match between Pakistan and Nepal in Multan on Wednesday. Babar Azam won the toss and elected to bat against Nepal in the Asia Cup 2023 opener at the Multan Cricket Stadium on Wednesday. Pakistan team will be confident to kick off their Asia Cup campaign with a victory against Nepal with the home crowd backing them. While Asia Cup debutant Nepal would be backing themselves to pull off an upset in their first ODI encounter against Pakistan.
However, the start of the match saw low attendance, which shocked those watching it on television.
Not gonna lie but my school cricket tournament had more audience than this one. #PAKvsNEP pic.twitter.com/UsSSVfYtqC
— R A T N I S H (@LoyalSachinFan) August 30, 2023
#PAKvsNEP
Craze of cricket in Pakistan pic.twitter.com/YIW85KWDYk— Rahul (@rahul_vnr32) August 30, 2023
Crazy Crowd in #PAKvsNEP Game
And they wanted Asia cup to happen in Pakistan, thank god it got Shifted in srilanka! pic.twitter.com/h0KTRZuZym— (@45Fan_Prathmesh) August 30, 2023
A complete empty Stadium in Multan. pic.twitter.com/OD0CUMJ4YF
— Mufaddal Vohra (@mufaddal_vohra) August 30, 2023
But later, sizeable number of fans did come to the ground.
Fans have started to gather to watch Pakistan’s match in Multan. pic.twitter.com/PPKFfRobwG
— Mufaddal Vohra (@mufaddal_vohra) August 30, 2023
Pakistan skipper Babar Azam said at the time of toss, “We will bat first, pitch looks very dry and shiny. No reason to name the XI earlier, we wanted to give confidence to our team. To be honest, being the top-ranked team brings a good kind of pressure, we’ll try to enjoy and do our best.”
Nepal skipper Rohit Paudel said at the time of toss, “Everyone is very happy, it is our first game in the Asia Cup. Everyone in Nepal is really excited for this game. Most of the things here are very similar to Nepal, looks like a beautiful wicket to bat on.”
Pakistan (Playing XI): Fakhar Zaman, Imam-ul-Haq, Babar Azam(c), Mohammad Rizwan(w), Agha Salman, Iftikhar Ahmed, Shadab Khan, Mohammad Nawaz, Shaheen Afridi, Naseem Shah, Haris Rauf
Nepal (Playing XI): Kushal Bhurtel, Aasif Sheikh(w), Rohit Paudel(c), Aarif Sheikh, Kushal Malla, Dipendra Singh Airee, Gulsan Jha, Sompal Kami, Karan KC, Sandeep Lamichhane, Lalit Rajbanshi.
With ANI inputs
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