We are only a week away from the start of the Asia Cup 2022, and here is the entire explainer of the format of the tournament, the teams, etc.
The tournament will kick off in Dubai on August 27, with , the designated hosts, taking on Afghanistan. The competition was slated to be played in Sri Lanka initially, but was then moved to the UAE – Dubai and Sharjah will host all the games – due to the upheaval economic and political situation in Sri Lanka. The SLC will still act as the host and will have the hosting rights for the competition.
What is the format of the Asia Cup 2022?
The Asia Cup 2022 will be played in the T20 format – in order to help the teams prepare better for the T20 World Cup 2022 which will be played in Australia in October-November. India are the defending champions having won the tournament in 2018, which, though, was in the ODI format, organised ahead of the 2019 World Cup.
India also won the 2016 edition of the Asia Cup, which was in the 2016 T20 World Cup year. So India, led by Rohit Sharma, will be aiming for a hat-trick of Asia Cups.
Rohit Sharma’s side will commence their Asia Cup 2022 campaign against arch-rivals Pakistan on August 28, Sunday, in Dubai.
What is the format of the Asia Cup 2022?
Six teams will compete in the tournament. There will be two rounds of matches before the final.
For the first round of matches, the 6 teams are divided into two groups: India, Pakistan and the team that wins the qualifying tournament comprise Group A, while Sri Lanka, Afghanistan and Bangladesh are in Group B. Each team plays the other once in the group stage with the top two teams from each group advancing to the Super 4 round.
In the Super 4, all teams play three matches – against each other – and the top 2 teams from Super 4 will qualify for the final on September 11, in Dubai.
This format of the Asia Cup 2022 – which was also used in the 2018 Asia Cup – means that there is a possibility of three India-Pakistan encounters, including the final.
The qualifying round to determine the sixth team will begin on August 20 in Oman. There are four teams competing for a place in Group A – UAE, Kuwait, Singapore and Hong Kong.
At what time will the matches start in Asia Cup 2022?
All matches will start at 6 pm local time [7.30 pm IST], with ten games in Dubai and three in Sharjah.
What are the squads for Asia Cup 2022?
At the time of writing, four boards have announced their squads:
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. Standbys: 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.
Afghanistan: Mohammad Nabi (C), Najibullah Zadran (VC), Afsar Zazai (wk), Azmatullah Omarzai, Farid Ahmad Malik, Fazal Haq Farooqi, Hashmatullah Shahidi, Hazratullah Zazai, Ibrahim Zadran, Karim Janat, Mujib ur Rahman, Najibullah Zadran, Naveen ul Haq, Noor Ahmad, Rahmanullah Gurbaz (wk), Rashid Khan and Samiullah Shinwari. Reserves: Nijat Masoud, Qais Ahmad, and Sharafuddin Ashraf
Bangladesh: Shakib Al Hasan (captain), Anamul Haque, Mushfiqur Rahim, Afif Hossain, Mosaddek Hossain, Mahmudullah, Mahedi Hasan, Mohammad Saifuddin, Hasan Mahmud, Mustafizur Rahman, Nasum Ahmed, Sabbir Rahman, Mehidy Hasan Miraz, Ebadot Hossain, Parvez Hossain Emon, Nurul Hasan, Taskin Ahmed
