Asia Cup 2022: All you need to know including format, schedule and squads
The 15th edition of the ACC Men’s Asia Cup Cricket tournament is set to begin from 27th of August in the United Arab Emirates. In this article, you will find all the information that you need to know about the upcoming ACC Men’s Asia Cup.
What is it?
The Asia Cup is the biggest international cricket tournament after all the ICC events and is played between the top teams in Asia. The first edition of the tournament was played 38 years ago in Sharjah and India became the champions, whereas the latest edition of the tournament was held in 2018 in the UAE, where India beat Bangladesh in the Final and were crowned the champions.
India have won the tournament the most number of times (7 times) followed by Sri Lanka who have won the tournament 5 times meanwhile Pakistan have only won it twice.
When is it ?
The 14th edition of the ACC Men’s Asia Cup Cricket tournament is set to begin from 27th of August in the United Arab Emirates with Sri Lanka taking on Afghanistan in the opener at Dubai, meanwhile the final will also be played in Dubai be on 11th of September.
What is the format?
The tournament is being played in the T20 format because it is a good preparation for the T20 World Cup later this year. This is the second time the Asia Cup will be played in the T20 format, as the 2016 edition in Bangladesh was also played in the T20 format, and it was done keeping in mind that year’s T20 World Cup.
The format of the tournament keeps changing depending on which year it is played in as the next edition of the Asia cup, which is due to be played in 2023, will be played in the ODI format as preparation for the 2023 World Cup in India.
Participating teams and format There are six teams which are participating in this tournament and these teams have been divided into two groups. Group A consists of India, Pakistan and Hong Kong, meanwhile Group B consists of Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Afghanistan. Hong Kong have reached the main tournament by winning the Asia Cup Qualifiers in which 4 teams (UAE, Hong Kong, Singapore and Kuwait) were in action from August 20 to 24 in Oman.
In the main tournament, each team plays the other two in their group once, and the top two qualify for the Super 4 round. There, each team plays every other team once, and the top two teams make it to the final.
Where is it being played?
The tournament will be played in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Earlier it was supposed to be held in Sri Lanka this year, but the economic and political crisis in that country meant it had to be moved. Both India and Pakistan were ruled out as options for various reasons and therefore United Arab Emirates (UAE) was then chosen as the new host for the tournament.
Team squads
The full squads for each of the sides can be seen below :
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.
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.
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.
What is the schedule?
The full schedule of the tournament including the super 4 stage can be seen below :
Aug 27 — Sri Lanka vs Afghanistan, 1st Match, Group B — Dubai .
Aug 28 — Pakistan vs India, 2nd Match, Group A — Dubai.
Aug 30 — Bangladesh vs Afghanistan, 3rd Match, Group B — Sharjah.
Aug 31 — India vs Qualifier, 4th Match, Group A — Dubai.
Sept 1 — Sri Lanka vs Bangladesh, 5th Match, Group B — Dubai.
Sept 2 — Pakistan vs Qualifier, 6th Match, Group A — Sharjah.
Super Fours:
Sept 3 — TBC vs TBC, Super Four, Match 1 (B1 v B2) — Sharjah.
Sept 4 — TBC vs TBC, Super Four, Match 2 (A1 v A2) — Dubai.
Sept 6 — TBC vs TBC, Super Four, Match 3 (A1 v B1) — Dubai.
Sept 7 — TBC vs TBC, Super Four, Match 4 (A2 v B2) — Dubai.
Sept 8 — TBC vs TBC, Super Four, Match 5 (A1 v B2) — Dubai.
Sept 9 — TBC vs TBC, Super Four, Match 6 (B1 v A2) — Dubai.
Sept 11 — TBC vs TBC, Final — Dubai.
