ASIA CUP 2022

 

The 15th Asia Cup cricket tournament is slated to take place in the United Arab Emirates in August and September of 2022, with the games being played as Twenty20 Internationals (T20Is). The COVID-19 pandemic caused the tournament to be postponed in July 2020 from its original September 2020 date. The event was then postponed twice before being set to take place in Sri Lanka in June 2021. After winning the privilege to host the 2022 edition, Pakistan was slated to host the tournament. However, the Asian Cricket Council (ACC) confirmed in October 2021 that Pakistan will host the 2023 edition and Sri Lanka would host the event in 2022. India is the reigning world champion.

Tournament will be played from 27th August 2022 to 11 September 2022.

Here is all the information you need to know about the tournament.

BACKSTORY 

The Asian Cricket Council granted the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) the right to host the event in December 2018. (ACC). It is not yet known whether the games will take place in Pakistan or the United Arab Emirates. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) requested that the PCB relocate the event's location after the announcement was made owing to ongoing security concerns. With the 2008 Asia Cup, Pakistan last hosted a multi-team international competition. Following the 2009 attack on the Sri Lanka national cricket team, only a small number of international matches have been played in Pakistan since then.

The ACC announced in May 2019 that Pakistan will host the competition. Given the continuing political animosity between the two nations, India's participation in the competition was questioned by the choice of Pakistan as the tournament's host nation. Because there had been concerns made over India's participation, the ACC had yet to approve the decision to have the tournament held in Pakistan as of October 2019. Several media agencies stated in January 2020 that Pakistan will not be serving as the tournament's host because to continuing political concerns with India.

According to Sourav Ganguly, president of the BCCI, "the Asia Cup will be staged in Dubai and both India and Pakistan will play." The next day, PCB Chairman Ehsan Mani refuted Ganguly's claim and claimed that the location had not yet been decided. Due to the COVID-19 epidemic, The ACC's initial meeting date of March 3, 2020, was postponed until the end of the month to consider the tournament's venue. Mani said that the competition would take place in a neutral site on March 7. He acknowledged the next month that the pandemic might prevent the tournament from happening at all.

Following a meeting with the ACC in June 2020, the PCB declared they would allow Sri Lanka to host the tournament if India refused to visit Pakistan. Following the discussion, the ACC released a press release noting that "potential venue possibilities for the Asia Cup 2020 were considered and it was decided to take the final decision in due course" in light of the impact and repercussions of the COVID-19 pandemic. The ACC issued a formal notification of the postponement in July 2021. After India made it to the World Test Championship final in March 2021, which conflicted with the tournament's intended dates in June, there was a chance that the event would be postponed once more.

The Asia Cup was postponed until 2023, according to the ACC, which announced that there will be no competition in 2021. Ramiz Raja announced in October 2021 that Pakistan would host the subsequent tournament in 2023, with Sri Lanka hosting the 2022 edition, following a meeting with the ACC. The first round of a qualification competition is set to begin on August 20, 2022.

The Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) informed the ACC on July 21, 2022, that they would not be able to host the competition owing to the country's economic and political crisis. The ACC announced on July 27, 2022, that the competition would be place in the United Arab Emirates, with Sri Lanka Cricket serving as the host nation. On August 2, 2022, the tournament's schedule was released.

PARTICIPATING TEAMS & QUALIFICATION 

ICC Full members 

Afghanistan 🇦🇫

Bangladesh 🇧🇩

India 🇮🇳

Pakistan 🇵🇰

Sri Lanka 🇱🇰

ACC Qualifier Team 

The qualifier tournament is scheduled to be contested in August 2022, by the UAE and Kuwait, who progressed from the 2020 ACC Western Region T20, as well as Singapore and Hong Kong, who came through the 2020 ACC Eastern Region T20.

SQUAD 

Till date only India and Pakistan have announced their squad for Asia cup.

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, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Shahnawaz Dahani, Usman Qadir.

Sri Lanka: Squad yet to be named. 

Bangladesh: Squad yet to be named. 

Afghanistan: Squad yet to be named.

Qualified team: Squad yet to be named. 

VENUE

Dubai ( Dubai International Cricket Stadium)

Capacity: 25,000

Matches to be played: 10

Sharjah ( Sharjah Cricket Stadium )

Capacity: 16,000

Matches to be played: 3

GROUPS

Group A 

India 🇮🇳

Pakistan 🇵🇰

Qualified Team

Fixtures 

28 August 2022

India 🇮🇳 vs Pakistan 🇵🇰

Dubai International Cricket Stadium, Dubai

31 August 2022

India 🇮🇳 vs Qualifier Winner

Dubai International Cricket Stadium, Dubai

2 September 2022

Pakistan 🇵🇰 vs Qualifier Winner

Sharjah Cricket Stadium, Sharjah

Group B 

Afghanistan 🇦🇫

Bangladesh 🇧🇩

Sri Lanka 🇱🇰

Fixtures

27 August 2022

Afghanistan 🇦🇫 vs Sri Lanka 🇱🇰

Dubai International Cricket Stadium, Dubai

30 August 2022

Afghanistan 🇦🇫 vs Bangladesh 🇧🇩

Sharjah Cricket Stadium, Sharjah

1 September 2022

Bangladesh 🇧🇩 vs Sri Lanka 🇱🇰

Dubai International Cricket Stadium, Dubai

SUPER FOUR 

Top two teams from both groups will qualify for super four.

Group A

A1 and A2 

Group B

B1 and B2 

All four qualifying teams will play each other in round robin format.

FINAL 

1st team in super four vs 2nd team in super four

Top two teams from Super Four will qualify for final.