After touring West Indies, team India will be participating in the much-anticipated Asia Cup 2022 in Sri Lanka, scheduled to start on 27th August. Earlier, there were doubts of the possibility of the event taking place in Sri Lanka. However, it has been understood that the Sri Lankan government is keen to host the tournament despite the ongoing crises in the Island nation.
“We will leave it to the Asian Cricket Council (ACC) to make the announcement but our board president Shammi Silva has informed Jay Shah, the president of ACC, about our preparedness to hold the event,” Mohan de Silva, secretary of the SLC, told Cricbuzz.
Meanwhile, the date for the highly anticipated clash between India and Pakistan has been revealed. The two teams will be locking horns with each other on 28th August in the Asia Cup encounter. It is pertinent to note that the tournament will be contested in a T20 format. This will be the second time when the tournament will be played in a T20 format after 2016. The tournament is likely to be held from 27th August to 11th September 2022.
As per reports, Sri Lanka are drawn up with Afghanistan and Bangladesh while the Qualifiers will commence on August 21. Meanwhile, the schedule of the 15th edition of the Asia Cup will be officially announced soon by Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) but more importantly, SLC has got the green light to host the tournament despite economic and political unrest in the country for the last few months.
India are the defending champions. Rohit Sharma and Co. last won the title in 2018 after beating Bangladesh in the final. Sri Lanka have won the Asia Cup title on five occasions, while Pakistan have won it twice. India are the most successful team in the competition, having won the title on five occasions. Teams like Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Hong Kong and United Arab Emirates are yet to win a title in the history of the tournament.
