Tickets for the mouth-watering India-Pakistan clash in Melbourne in the T20 World Cup 2022 have been sold out within minutes of being available, the International Cricket Council (ICC) itself confirmed on Thursday.
The two arch-rivals will meet at the iconic Melbourne Cricket Ground on October 23 for their Super 12 round of the event in Australia next month.
The ICC also revealed that over 500,000 tickets have been purchased by the fans for the entire tournament, which will run from October 16 (first the qualifiers and then Super 12) to November 13, the date of the final at the MCG.
“The ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2022 is set to welcome fans of all ages and backgrounds, with over 500,000 fans already securing their place to the event that begins in one month’s time,” the ICC said in its release.
“Fans from 82 different countries have purchased tickets to watch the world’s best players from 16 international teams, marking the return of full stadiums at ICC events for the first time since the Women’s T20 World Cup in 2020, which culminated with 86,174 fans for the final at the MCG,” it added.
Highlighting the craze among fans for the India-Pakistan contest, the ICC added: “The India v Pakistan fixture at the MCG on 23 October is sold out, with additional standing room tickets snapped up within minutes of going on sale. An official re-sale platform will be launched closer to the event, where fans can exchange tickets at face value.”
Pakistan defeated India last year in Dubai
Also, for the match between India and the runners-up of Group A (from the qualifying round) have also almost completely been sold out.
India and Pakistan recently met twice during the Asia Cup 2022 – with both teams sharing honours with one win each. At last year’s T20 World Cup, in the UAE, Babar Azam’s side thrashed Virat Kohli’s by 10 wickets. The Men In Blue are in a much better position prior to the T20 WC this time than they were last year and will aim for redemption at the MCG.
India have announced their squad for the T20 World Cup 2022:
Rohit Sharma (c), KL Rahul (vc), Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Deepak Hooda, Rishabh Pant (wk), Dinesh Karthik (wk), Hardik Pandya, R. Ashwin, Yuzvendra Chahal, Axar Patel, Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Harshal Patel, Arshdeep Singh.
Reserves: Mohammed Shami, Shreyas Iyer, Ravi Bishnoi, Deepak Chahar.
