Asia Cup 2022

This Asia Cup 2022 will be the 15th edition of the Asia Cup cricket tournament, played between the best teams from Asia. The tournament is set to kick off on August 27, 2022, and the final is scheduled for September 11, 2022. This year, the tournament will take place in the scorching summer heat of UAE after it was shifted from Sri Lanka amid political and economic turmoil in the country.

The first edition of the Asia Cup was held in the year 1984, compromising only three teams: India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka, hosted by the United Arab Emirates. The tournament was played in the ODI format from 1984-2014. However, in 2015, Asia Cricket Council announced that from 2016 onwards, Asia Cup events would be played on a rotational basis between ODI and T20I format. As a result, the 2016 event was the first event played in the T20I format and functioned as a preparatory tournament ahead of the 2016 ICC World Twenty20. This year’s edition would be the second to be played in the T20I format.

What to Expect?

Asia Cup’s earlier editions have had a plenty of memorable moments. You just cannot forget Shahid Afridi hitting R Ashwin for back-to-back sixes in the final over to win the game in 2014, or Virat Kohli smashing his career-best 183 against Pakistan to help India chase down 330 in 2012, or Ajantha Mendis bamboozling India in 2008 final.

This year too, we expect the tournament will leave a lasting impact on cricket fans. Since the announcement of Asia Cup 2022, fans across the globe have been looking forward to August 28, 2022, the day when arch-rivals India and Pakistan will face-off in the second game. The match is expected to set the Dubai stadium on fire, just like last year, when they met on the same ground in T20 World Cup Match. Pakistan broke India’s undefeated streak against in ICC tournaments, that too in a humiliating manner by 10 wickets. So, this time, fans want to see whether the Greenshirts can dominate India once again, or will the Indian team will have their revenge?

Talking about team India, the one question on every fan’s mind is: “When will Virat Kohli score his 71st hundred? It has been a long rough patch for the former Indian captain and one of the finest batters to ever grace the 22-yards. At one point, he used to score hundreds for fun. However, now, his dream run seems like a distant memory as he last scored a hundred in 2019. Kohli, I believe, is still a star and whenever he plays, fans tune in to see how he turns fortunes around. Hopefully, we will see him turn the tide in Asia Cup 2022.

Kohli’s downfall coincided with the rise of another star batter from the subcontinent, Pakistan’s captain Babar Azam, who ranked no. 1 (batter) in both ODI and T20I. In tests, he stands at no. 3.

Although Azam is in the best of forms at the moment, and the way he dominates pace bowlers is poetry in motion, he does have a problem dealing with wrist spinners, whether it is Adil Rashid or Kuldeep Yadav. He has struggled especially against Rashid Khan – the Afghanistan leg spinner has dismissed the Pakistani captain more often (five times) than anyone else in the shortest format and conceded just 59 runs off 48 balls. In fact, every single time they have come across each other, Khan has knocked Azam out, and if they meet again in the Asia Cup – it will be the second time the meet in T20I – it would be an interesting watch. Nothing like seeing a bowler turn the ball around and bamboozle the batters, and we hope to see a lot of it in the Asia Cup 2022.

Asia Cup Groups

There will be six teams participating in this year’s Asia Cup. They will be divided into two groups, with the top two teams from each group laying each other in the Super 4.

Group A: Pakistan, India, Hong Kong (Qualifier)

Group B: Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Afghanistan

Asia Cup Schedule

Asia Cup Squads

Group A

India: Rohit Sharma (c), KL Rahul, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant, Deepak Hooda, Dinesh Karthik, Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, R Ashwin, Yuzvendra Chahal, Ravi Bishnoi, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Arshdeep Singh, Avesh Khan Standby: Shreyas Iyer, Axar Patel, Deepak Chahar

Pakistan: Babar Azam (c), Shadab Khan, Asif Ali, Fakhar Zaman, Haider Ali, Haris Rauf, Iftikhar Ahmed, Khushdil Shah, Mohammad Nawaz, Mohammad Rizwan, Mohammad Wasim Jnr, Naseem Shah, Shahnawaz Dahani, Usman Qadir, Mohammad Hasnain

Hong Kong: Nizakat Khan (c), Kinchit Shah, Zeeshan Ali, Haroon Arshad, Babar Hayat, Aftab Hussain, Ateeq Iqbal, Aizaz Khan, Ehsan Khan, Scott McKechnie (wk), Ghazanfar Mohammad, Yasim Murtaza, Dhananjay Rao, Wajid Shah, Ayush Shukla, Ahan Trivedi, Mohammad Waheed

Group B

Sri Lanka: Dasun Shanaka (c), Danushka Gunathilaka, Pathum Nissanka, Kusal Mendis, Charith Asalanka, Bhanuka Rajapaksa, Ashen Bandara, Dhananjaya de Silva, Wanindu Hasaranga, Maheesh Theekshana, Jeffrey Vandersay, Praveen Jayawickrama, Chamika Karunaratne, Dilshan Madushanka, Matheesha Pathirana, Nuwanidu Fernando, Nuwan Thusara, Dinesh Chandimal

Bangladesh: Shakib Al Hasan (c), Anamul Haque, Mushfiqur Rahim, Afif Hossain, Mosaddek Hossain, Mahmudullah, Mahedi Hasan, Mohammad Saifuddin, Mustafizur Rahman, Nasum Ahmed, Sabbir Rahman, Mehidy Hasan Miraz, Taskin Ahmed, Ebadot Hossain, Parvez Hossain Emon, Mohammad Naim

Afghanistan: Mohammad Nabi (c), Najibullah Zadran, Afsar Zazai, Azmatullah Omarzai, Farid Ahmad Malik, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Hashmatullah Shahidi, Hazratullah Zazai, Ibrahim Zadran, Karim Janat, Mujeeb ur Rahman, Najibullah Zadran, Naveen ul Haq, Noor Ahmad, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Rashid Khan, Samiullah Shinwari Standby: Nijat Masood, Qais Ahmed, Sharafuddin Ashraf