Asia Cup 2023: Will India-Pakistan encounter in Pallekele get held up due to rain? Here's what the forecast says

The 2023 Asia Cup is underway with Pakistan starting off with a massive win over Nepal on Wednesday and Sri Lanka and Bangladesh fighting it out for their first points the following day.

While the tournament kicked into action in Pakistan’s Multan, where the opening ceremony took place ahead of the Group A encounter, the Sri Lanka-Bangladesh Group B fixture is taking place in Pallekele on the other side of the subcontinent.

The two games however, hardly come close to hype that the upcoming India vs Pakistan contest has managed to generate in its build-up.

The Men in Blue open their account against their arch-rivals on Saturday at the Pallekele International Cricket Stadium, facing Pakistan for the first time since their memorable T20 World Cup encounter in Melbourne last November.

India and Pakistan had also squared off twice during last year’s edition of the Asia Cup, which took place in the T20I format and had to be shifted to the UAE from Sri Lanka, though Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) retained hosting rights.

While India won the opening encounter by five wickets, Pakistan fought back in the Super Four match, winning by a similar margin. The Men in Blue would then get knocked out of the race to the final following their six-wicket loss against Sri Lanka and Pakistan’s thrilling win over Afghanistan.

The upcoming match between the fierce rivals is expected to be every bit an intense encounter and though they’ve had the upper hand in World Cup and Asia Cup encounters in recent years, no team enters this game as a favourite. Especially given Pakistan’s red-hot form in recent games.

The only factor that could prevent the two sides from playing out a game for the ages on Saturday is the weather, with rain more than likely to make an appearance in the second Group A game.

What will the weather be like in Pallekele on Saturday?

According to the forecast on The Weather Channel, thunderstorms have been predicted for Pallekele on Saturday with a 76 per cent chance of rain during the day.

And as per the hourly forecast for Saturday on Accuweather.com, Pallekele is expected to experience overnight thunderstorms along with a 59 per cent chance of rain around the 5 pm mark, when the first innings will be underway.

The silver lining here is the excellent response to rain across Sri Lankan venues, with the ground staff known to cover the entire pitch to protect not just the pitch but the outfield as well. That could help get the game restarted as quickly as possible and have as little interruption in the proceedings.