Rana Naved-ul-Hasan, a former fast bowler for Pakistan, recently made a controversial remark about the eagerly anticipated Indo-Pak match in the upcoming 2023 World Cup. Naved-ul-Hasan has claimed that ‘Indian Muslims will support Pakistan’ in its crucial matches against the Men in Blue.
When asked which team will start as the favourite in the 2023 World Cup game and how much support will Pakistan receive, the former Pakistani right-arm seamer responded on the Nadir Ali Podcast, “India is the favourite if there is any match in India. Muslims of India support Pakistan instead of India when Pakistan’s match takes place in India.”
The high-voltage encounter between India and Pakistan is set to take place at Ahmedabad’s iconic Narendra Modi Stadium on October 15, 2023. The match will be part of the ODI World Cup which is scheduled to take place in India in October and November 2023.
Notably, this is the first instance in the history of the ODI World Cup that the entire tournament will be held in India.
Each team will face every other team at least once because the games will be played in a round-robin format. The four teams with the highest scores after nine games for each team advance to the semifinals.
The tournament will be played by 10 teams, out of which eight are already qualified- India, Pakistan, England, New Zealand, Pakistan, South Africa, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan. The other two spots will be filled after the qualifying matches between several teams like West Indies, Sri Lanka, Netherlands, Nepal, Oman, etc.
India, nevertheless, has a spotless record against their arch-rivals, having won each of their seven games since their initial encounter in 1992.
Since the ICC Cricket World Cup 2023 schedule was released a few days ago, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has continued to maintain that the team will only travel to India for the competition when the government has given its clearance.
On Saturday, July 8, 2023, Ehsaan Mazari, the minister for sports in Pakistan, stated that his country would withdraw from the 2023 ICC Cricket World Cup in India if India avoids travelling across the border for the Asia Cup.