The highlight of the upcoming ICC Men’s T20 World Cup, the high-octane fixture between the arch-rivals, India and Pakistan is just around the corner on Sunday, October 24 at the Dubai International Stadium at 7:30 PM IST.
The last time, the neighbouring countries met each other was in the ICC Men’s World Cup 2019. The blockbuster game was claimed by the Indians. Rohit Sharma smashed a staggering century, which dominated Pakistan in the first innings of the game. While chasing the mammoth target of 337, Pakistan fell short by 89 runs. Apart from providing immense entertainment and high-quality cricket to the fans, the high-pressure game turned out to be beneficial for the broadcasters as well. The 50-over battle between India and Pakistan was viewed by 273 million unique viewers through linear TV coverage along with 50 million digital-only viewers. The match where India registered their 12th consecutive victory over Pakistan in ICC World Cups was the highest viewed match of the ICC Men’s World Cup 2019.
The major question arises, will the India-Pakistan match on Sunday will break the viewership record of their previous encounter in 2019?
The answer to this intriguing question is definitely YES, the two giants of world cricket will be facing each other after two years in one of the biggest sporting events globally. With the broadcaster, Star Sports releasing an ad for the exciting fixture to increase the rates for the 10-second ad spots along with the buzz created on social media, the cricket fans are looking forward to this game.
The first ball will be played at 7:30 IST on Sunday, which is the standard time for a T20 match and also suitable for the Indian audience to tune in for the game. Sunday’s game is bound to break the viewership record of the previous outing due to the unparalleled coverage as the tournament can be viewed in 200 countries. The T20 World Cup’s streaming partner, Disney+Hostar has 34 million subscribers from India and Indonesia. The streaming of the game on the OTT platform gathers a massive audience, which will pave the way for the fixture to break the viewership record of the previous outing in the ICC event.
Arguably the biggest cricketing fixture of the year features some modern-day greats which include, the likes of Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Babar Azam and many more.
The highly anticipated ICC Men’s T20 World Cup, which was supposed to take place in October 2020, finally commenced on October 17, 2021, in the UAE and Oman, staged by the BCCI. After the COVID-19 concerns in India, the marquee international T20 event was shifted to the middle-east.