The Asia Cup 2022 is set to commence on August 27, Saturday, at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium with Sri Lanka, who are official hosts of the tournament, taking on Afghanistan in the tournament opener.
India are the defending champion having won the tournament in 2018 and before that in 2016. While the 2018 tournament was in the ODI format, now it will be in the T20 format to allow the teams better preparation opportunities for the T20 World Cup 2022 slated for October-November in Australia. Rohit Sharma’s side will kick off their Asia Cup 2022 campaign against arch-rivals Pakistan on Sunday, August 28.
5 out of the six teams to play the tournament are already known: India, Pakistan and a Qualifying team are in Group A; Sri Lanka, Afghanistan and Bangladesh comprise Group B. UAE, Kuwait, Singapore and Hong Kong will battle out in a Qualifying tournament in Oman.
Today, in this article we have a look at the jerseys of the five teams and rank them:
5- Bangladesh
The runners-ups of the last two Asia Cups, Bangladesh aren’t coming with much confidence in this year’s edition: they lost ODI and T20I series to Zimbabwe – which came as a surprise to Tamim Iqbal himself – and before that had been beaten by West Indies in a T20I series. At T20 World Cup 2021, Bangladesh lost all their 5 matches in the Super 12 stage.
The Tigers will be donning their traditional green attire which, since last year’s T20 World Cup has had a nice Crimson (dark red) layers around it.
4 – Pakistan
Babar Azam’s team will look to win their first Asia Cup trophy since 2012. They were beaten by Sri Lanka in the 2014 final, and then failed to reach the final in the last two editions despite starting as one of the favourites.
Pakistan also suffered a heartbreak at the T20 World Cup last year: after winning all the 5 Super 12 matches, they were beaten by Australia in the semi-final.
They have a plain green jersey which their superstars have donned with great pride.
3 – Afghanistan
Afghanistan’s T20 teams’ rise has been meteoric over the past 7-8 years with superstar leg-spinner Rashid Khan at the forefront. They had beaten West Indies in the 2016 T20 World Cup in a group match, and last year they won 2 out of 5 Super 12 matches at the T20 World Cup 2021.
Afghanistan’s T20 jersey spans the blue colour on it, with the colours of their national flag – black, green and red – sprawling across the shoulder, neck and sides.
2 – Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka have lost all of their three T20I series since the T20 World Cup last year. They have also failed to qualify directly for the Super 12 of the T20 World Cup 2022, like last year. Sri Lanka last won the Asia Cup in 2014.
Sri Lanka’s T20 jersey, though, is quite an attractive one: while they retained the light blue colour, it is overshadowed by the bright yellow striped across the shoulders; the face of the lion is the standout facet of the t-shirt.
1- India
India will look to continue their dominance in the Asia Cup and prepare for the T20 World Cup 2022, hoping to do much better than the group stage exit they suffered last year in the UAE, courtesy of losses to Pakistan and New Zealand in Super 12.4.
India’s ‘Billion Cheers’ jersey – which had the patterns on the jersey inspired by the billion cheers of the fans – was revealed ahead of last year’s T20 World Cup and it was loved by everyone. The t-shirt has two different shades of dark blue striped across the chest, with a tinge of orange around the collar and the sides.
