Senior officials Richard Illingworth and Marais Erasmus will officiate the IND vs PAK World Cup clash in Ahmedabad. The match will be played on October 14 at the iconic Narendra Modi Stadium. As per reports, Richard Kettleborough will be the 3rd umpire for the game while Andy Pycroft will be the match referee. The mega event is slated to start on October 5 with the defending champions England taking on New Zealand.
ICC recently announced the list 16 umpires and four match referees for WC 2023
Earlier ICC announced the list of 16 umpires and four match referees for the upcoming marquee event. The list includes Christopher Gaffaney (New Zealand), Kumar Dharmasena (Sri Lanka), Marais Erasmus (South Africa), Michael Gough (England), Nitin Menon (India), Paul Reiffel (Australia), Richard Illingworth (England), Richard Kettleborough (England), Rodney Tucker (Australia), Joel Wilson (West Indies), Ahsan Raza (Pakistan), and Adrian Holdstock (South Africa).
The remaining four belong to the ICC Emerging Umpire Panel. They include Sharfuddoula Ibne Shahid (Bangladesh), Paul Wilson (Australia), Alex Wharf (England) and Chris Brown (New Zealand).
Meanwhile, Team India is set to take on Pakistan in their Super 4s encounter of the Asia Cup. Both teams have already met in the competition once but the fixture got washed out due to the rain. The match is set to be played at the R.Premadasa Stadium in Colombo. Both teams look quite strong on the paper and it will be an exciting contest to watch out for.
It will be a battle between Pakistan pacers and Indian batters. PAK fast bowlers have been exceptional in the Asia Cup so far. Led by Shaheen Afridi, the bowlers Naseem Shah and Haris Rauf have been relentless with their line and lengths. In all three matches Pakistan have played, the pacers have taken all 30 wickets. Against India also, Afridi, Naseem, and Rauf bowled well. India batters have to be at their A-game to counter the PAK trio.