The Asia Cup 2023 started on Wednesday with the match between Pakistan and Nepal in Multan. Babar Azam won the coin toss and opted to bat against Nepal in the Asia Cup 2023 opener at Multan Cricket Stadium on Wednesday. The Pakistan team will be confident to start their Asia Cup campaign with a victory against Nepal, with support from the home crowd. While Asia Cup debutant Nepal would back themselves to cause an upset in their first ODI encounter against Pakistan.
However, at the start of the game, attendance was low, which shocked viewers on television.
I’m not going to lie, but my school cricket tournament had a bigger crowd than this. #PAKvsNEP pic.twitter.com/UsSSVfYtqC
— RATNISH (@LoyalSachinFan) August 30, 2023
#PAKvsNEP
Cricket craze in Pakistan pic.twitter.com/YIW85KWDYk— Rahul (@rahul_vnr32) August 30, 2023
Crazy crowd inside #PAKvsNEP Game
And they wanted the Asia Cup to be held in Pakistan, thank goodness it was moved to Sri Lanka! pic.twitter.com/h0KTRZuZym— (@45Fan_Pratmesh) August 30, 2023
A completely empty stadium in Multan. pic.twitter.com/OD0CUMJ4YF
— Mufaddal Vohra (@mufaddal_vohra) August 30, 2023
But later a large number of fans came 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
Pakistani skipper Babar Azam said at the time of the coin toss: “We are going to bat first, the pitch looks very dry and shiny. There is no reason to name the XI before, we wanted to give confidence to our team. To be fair because we are the best ranked team provides good pressure, we will try to enjoy and do our best.”
Nepalese skipper Rohit Paudel said at the time of the coin toss: “Everyone is very happy, it is our first match in the Asia Cup. Everyone in Nepal is very excited about this match. Most things here are very similar to Nepal, it seems that a beautiful wicket to save.”
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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