Asia Cup 2023: Pakistan vs Nepal- Match Preview for the 1st game of the tournament

The 2023 Asia Cup is officially upon us. The first game of the tournament will be played between Pakistan and Nepal. The tournament will be played with a Hybrid model with four games in Pakistan and the rest to be held in Sri Lanka.

The first game of the tournament will be played between Pakistan and Nepal. The venue for the game is the Multan Cricket Stadium in Multan. The match is officially set to begin at 15:00 hours Indian Standard Time.

Pakistan and Nepal will be playing their first game against each other. This game will be Nepal’s 58^th One Day International. Nepal has won 30 matches while losing 25 matches with one game ending in a tie and one game ending in no result.

Likely playing XI for both teams –

Pakistan has been crowned the World Number 1 side in ODI cricket. This feat was achieved after their 3-0 win over Afghanistan recently. Babar Azam and his men will not have too many changes to the team that played an ODI recently.

Pakistan XI – Fakhar Zaman, Imam-UL-Haq, Babar Azam (Captain), Mohammad Rizwan (Wicket-Keeper), Saud Shakeel, Agha Salman, Shadab Khan, Mohammad Nawaz, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Haris Rauf and Naseem Shah

Nepal XI – Rohit Paudel (Captain), Aasif Shaikh, Kushal Malla, Bhim Sharki, Dipendra Singh Airee, Gulshan Jha, Karan KC, Sandeep Lamichhane, Lalit Rajbanshi Kushal Bhurtel, and Sompal Kami

Likely star players –

Babar Azam, with the bat, is the one to watch out for. With the ball, it will be Haris Rauf, Shaheen Shah Afridi, and Naseem Shah who have the capability to do damage.

For Nepal, it will be their captain Rohit Paudel who will be a key player along with wicket-keeper Aasif Shaikh. With the ball, the onus will be on Sandeep Lamichhane who has the experience of playing various T20 leagues around the world.

Speaking about Multan Cricket Stadium, the ground has so far hosted 10 ODI games. The last ODI game to be played here was in 2022 when Pakistan beat West Indies by 53 runs. The highest team total at Multan Cricket Stadium is 323 scored by Pakistan against Bangladesh in 2003. The lowest total is 148 all out by Zimbabwe in 2004.

Out of the ten matches played, five matches have been won by teams after batting first. Five games have been won by teams batting 2^nd. The toss will not be of much importance as dew will not be a factor at this time of the year.

The highest individual scorer at this ground is Shai Hope with 127 scored in 2022. Mohammad Nawaz with 4/19 holds the best bowling figures at Multan Cricket Ground. The best chase at this venue is 306/5 which was achieved by West Indies in 2022.