The highly anticipated India-Pakistan match in the T20 Asia Cup is facing an unusual slump in ticket sales, with the window still open and sales trickling in at a slow pace, despite being less than three days away from the fixture.
Despite introducing a single ticket format to make purchases more accessible, organisers haven't seen a significant boost in sales, with the numbers remaining sluggish ahead of the match. India is set to clash with Pakistan on September 14.
An Emirates Cricket official speculated that the lower ticket sales might be due to the absence of star Indian players Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli, who retired from the shortest format of the game after India's victory in the T20 World Cup against South Africa last year.
An official from Emirates Cricket told ANI, "We are surprised that flow of sales for India vs Pakistan is much low. Till the time we sold out with lower stands only but the upper and top tear stands are still on sale.
"In the champions trophy for the same match we had sale twice in a single day. We had opened ticket window at 2 pm and at 4 pm and were sold in just less then 4 minutes! But this time craze is very dull, it might be it's because of absence of Rohit and Virat."
Fans have taken to social media to express disappointment over ticket sales, with some calling for single-match tickets to be released closer to the fixture date. However, premium seats remain prohibitively expensive, priced over Rs 2.5 lakh for just two tickets.
India posted a commanding victory by nine wickets in their Asia Cup opener against the UAE on Wednesday.
India will play their final group stage fixture against Oman on September 19 in Abu Dhabi. After the group stage, the tournament will proceed to the Super 4, where the top two teams from each group will qualify.
If India finishes at the top of Group A, then all of their Super 4 matches will be held in Dubai. If India finishes second, then one of their Super 4 clashes will be held in Abu Dhabi and the remaining two in Dubai. The Super 4 stage will run from September 20 to 26.
Dubai will host the final, which is scheduled for September 28.
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