India and Pakistan will face off each other in the United Arab Emirates with India hosting the tournament in Dubai and Abu Dhabi this year in September. This decision came after much deliberation in the recently concluded ACC meeting.
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This means that we could see rivals India and Pakistan playing three ODI matches against each other. The first match between India and Pakistan in the group stage will be played on September 21 and another one in the Super 4 Round on 27th September.
The tournament will have six teams divided into two groups. India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Afghanistan will compete against each other. A qualifying round will be played to select the sixth team.
The qualifying round will comprise Hong Kong, Malaysia, Nepal, Oman, Singapore, and UAE which will start from September 13.
The top two teams from each group will qualify for the Super 4 Round. Every team will play against the other three teams. The main tournament will have 13 games in 13 days across two venues.
India have not played any bilateral series with Pakistan since 2012-13. The Twenty20 series was drawn while Pakistan won the ODIs 2-1.
Last time India met Pakistan was in Champions Trophy 2017 final where they lost to them by a huge margin.
Asia Cup 2018 Schedule
Group A:
India, Pakistan, Qualifier
Group B:
Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka
Group Stage-
Sept 18: Pakistan vs Qualifier and Bangladesh vs Sri Lanka
Sept 19: India vs Qualifier
Sept 20: Afghanistan vs Sri Lanka
Sept 21: India vs Pakistan and Bangladesh vs Afghanistan
Super 4 Round-
Sept 23: 1st Group A vs 2nd Group B
Sept 24: 1st Group B vs 2nd Group A
Sept 25: 2nd Group A vs 2nd Group B
Sept 26: 1st Group A vs 1st Group B
Sept 27: 1st Group A vs 2nd Group A
Sept 28: 1st Group B vs 2nd Group B
Sept 30: Final
(With inputs from cricingif.com)
