Asia Cup 2022
Asia Cup 2022 is just around the corner! The main event of Asia Cup 2022 will commence from 27th August. The qualifiers started on 20th of this month and 4 Asian teams fought each other to qualify and get a chance to compete with the big giants. Out of these 4 teams
Hong Kong successfully came out as team to deserve a place in Asia's biggest cricket festival. The event was originally scheduled to be hosted in 2020 but COVID 19 caused it to be postponed. Sri Lanka were due to host it this year but the troubling economic crisis faced by the country resulted in a last minute change to the UAE. India are the defending champions and record winners of the competition having won it 7 times, they start as favorites.
Event Format
6 teams are divided Into 2 Groups.
Group A has India, Pakistan and Hong Kong .
Group B Has Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.
Each team will Play against Each Team, Top 2 teams from each Group will Qualify to Super 4. In Super 4 Every Team will play against every Team and Top 2 teams will Qualify For Final.
PAKvIND
The entire event will no doubt have nail biting matches that are worth watching.
However, cricket fans from all over the world will be most excited for the clash of the two big giants, the two rivalries "India and Pakistan" on the 28th of August.
These 2 teams have shown their expertise on countless different occasions, their match have always been a huge treat to the world of cricket! We have put together a comparative analysis for these two rivalries. Both India and Pakistan have copped huge blows in the pace department in the form of star bowlers Bumrah and Shaheen being ruled out of the tournament with back and knee injuries respectively. India will go in with the star studded top 3 of KL Rahul. Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli while their counterparts will step out on the field with the No.1 and No.3 ranked batsmen in the world Babar and Rizwan. India's middle order is filled with experience with the likes of the in-form SuryaKumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya and Rishabh Pant, while Pakistan have gone with a mix of experience and youth with Haider Ali, Iftikhar Ahmad, Asif Ali and Khushdil Shah. Expect explosives from this fiery middle order. Now onto the spin department, India have gone spin heavy and recalled the tried and tested old guns Yuzvendra Chahal and Ravichandran Ashwin, pair them with Jadeja, Bishnoi and the part time option of Deepak Hooda and if the pitch offers some kind of assistance throughout the tournament, India will be licking their fingers. On the other hand Pakistan have opted for Shadab, Nawaz, Usman Qadir and Khushdil Shah. Last but not the least, Pakistan's pace department slightly takes the edge here with pace express Haris Rauf, up and coming Naseem Shah, Mohammad Waseem (pending fitness), Hasnain and Dahani while Indians have gone with just 3 pacers namely the swing king Bhuvneshwar Kumar, young left arm pacer Arshdeep Singh and hit the deck bowler Avesh Khan. Will be interesting to see which sort of combinations both teams will step out on to the field with on Sunday.
Our Predictions
As mentioned before India are favorites to win the tournament but cricket is a funny game, it keeps us on our toes. Any team can defeat each other on a given day. . From Qualifiers Hong Kong unexpectedly made a place in Group A toppling the likes of UAE and Singapore ranked higher than them. For me the 2 teams that are likely to qualify for Asia Cup final are India And Pakistan, We can't really predict the matches of Pakistan because there is a reason we call them unpredictable. What are your picks for the final?
Blog by Muneeb Ahmed
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