Asia Cup 2023: India vs Pakistan in Pallekele to be affected by rain? Here's what the forecast says

Asia Cup is underway with Pakistan starting off with a massive win over Nepal on Wednesday and Sri Lanka beat Bangladesh 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 took place in Pallekele in the island nation. 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. The upcoming match between the fierce rivals is expected to be an intense encounter. India have had the upper hand in World Cup and Asia Cup encounters in recent years, but that makes no difference now. Pakistan, top-ranked team in ODIs, are in red-hot form. The only factor that could prevent the two sides from playing out a game, at least a full game, is the weather. What is the weather in Pallekele for India vs Pakistan? According to the forecast on The Weather Channel, there are predictions of mostly cloud and overcast conditions with a 18 percent chance of rain during the day. And as per the hourly forecast on Accuweather.com, Pallekele is expected to experience rain around 3PM toss time and again at 7 PM in the evening with a 59 percent chance of rain. 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 surface but the outfield as well. That could help get the game restarted as quickly as possible and have as little interruption in the proceedings.