Pakistan captain Babar Azam is elated to play their opening game against Nepal on their home soil on August 30 in Multan. The Asia Cup tournament will hosted by Pakistan after 15 long years, where the Men in Green will host four games in the tournament, while Sri Lanka is scheduled to host the remaining nine games in the continental event.

The last time Pakistan hosted the event was in 2008 and the major cricketing action in the country was stopped for a brief period of time after the major terrorist attack on the Sri Lankan team in 2009 following which many cricketing nations stopped their tour to Pakistan and Pakistan Cricket Board has taken a lot effort to conduct the continental tournament in their home soil after 15 years.

Speaking to the media as quoted by PCB, Babar Azam is happy to play against Nepal in front of the passionate Multan crowd and congratulated the emerging side Nepal for qualifying for the event after playing the qualifications tournaments and believes that this would be a massive boost Nepal and expects a good contest against them in campaign opener

“It is always a great feeling to play in front of the passionate Multan crowd and we all are very excited that the Asia Cup is beginning from this city,” Babar Azam said.

“I want to congratulate Nepal for qualifying for the Asia Cup and I hope that their participation will give a boost to the development of the sport in the country. We are looking forward to playing Nepal and I am sure it will be a good contest,” Babar Azam added.

Pakistan has been one of the most improved teams in recent times, as they have a good formidable batting unit, that has the ability to take on high-quality bowlers. The Men in Green bowlers have shown the capability to rattle the opponents’ batters and they will look to put up a show in the forthcoming Asia Cup 2023 to get themselves better prepared for the ODI World Cup 2023.

The Men in Green have not won the Asia Cup since clinching their maiden title way back in 2012 and they look to put up an impressive on the home and Sri Lanka to win the championship after 11 long years having finished as the runner-up in the 2022 Asia Cup.

Pakistan playing XI for Nepal match:

Babar Azam (C), Shadab Khan (vc), Fakhar Zaman, Salman Ali Agha, Iftikhar Ahmed, Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Mohammad Nawaz, Naseem Shah, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Haris Rauf.