One trophy, 8 contenders, who will fight?
Lahore:
Teams are ready to compete in the Asia Cup, the festival will be held in the United Arab Emirates from Tuesday, Afghanistan and Hong Kong teams will face each other in the opening match at Abu Dhabi Stadium.
According to the details, the Asia Cup is starting on Tuesday, the captains’ media conference and photo session with trophy will be held at Dubai International Stadium at 11:30 am.
The first match between Afghanistan and Hong Kong will be played on the same day at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi.
All eyes are on the Pakistan-India match in the tournament, both teams will face each other for the first time since the T20 World Cup 2024 last year.India will start their campaign on September 10 against the United Arab Emirates in Dubai.
The Green Shirts’ opening match is scheduled for September 12 against Oman. The biggest clash of the Asia Cup will be between Pakistan and India on September 14 at the Dubai Cricket Stadium.
Meanwhile, Pakistan cricket team’s foreign head coach Mike Hesson is hopeful of the best performance from the players in the Asia Cup as well as in the Triangular Series.
He said that no team can be considered easy, our first priority is to qualify for the Super Four, and later we will try to move forward with the best performance.
He said that this year the team won 10 out of 14 T20 International matches, including defeating Afghanistan in the Triangular Series final.
The coach also considered the recent excellent performance of Mohammad Nawaz, Fakhar Zaman’s improved form after recovery and experience in top-order batting as important.
Hesson said that the conditions in Dubai and Abu Dhabi are different from Sharjah. In the triangular series, we fielded 5 spinners. The conditions allowed for that, but we also have 5 very good pacers.
We will choose the team according to the conditions.
He also expressed satisfaction over the good performance on 4 different pitches in the triangular series and appreciated the better play in batting and bowling in the final.
It should be remembered that the Asia Cup matches will be held in stadiums in Dubai and Abu Dhabi. The event will be played in the T20 format like in 2016 and 2022.
Pakistan is in Group A with India, the United Arab Emirates and Oman. Group B includes Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Hong Kong. 2 teams from both groups will reach the Super Four.
The final is scheduled for September 28.
Before the tournament, Pakistan gained confidence by winning the triangular T20 series, India, being the world champions, will enter the field as a strong candidate.
Led by Suryakumar Yadav, the team includes excellent batsmen like Jasprit Bumrah, Abhishek Sharma, Tilak Verma and Test captain Shubman Gill.
The Afghanistan team was defeated by Pakistan in the recent final, however, captain Rashid Khan says that this experience will prove useful for us, we will try to compete through spinners, the Asia Cup is also important for preparations for the T20 World Cup scheduled next year.
