Asia Cup 2022 Cricket Tournament – Schedule, Venue, Teams and more

The Asia Cup 2022 cricket tournament is barely a month away. It will be the 15th edition of the premier T20 tournament held in Asia and organized by the Asian Cricket Council in collaboration with the International Cricket Council. As the name suggests, the Asia Cup trophy is contested between Asian countries and is the highest cricket honour in the continent.

This year’s Asia Cup cricket tournament is being held after a period of four years. Usually, the tournament is held every two years. However, there have been a lot of delays and postponements because of the COVID-19 pandemic and hence, the 15th edition is being held in late 2022.

The qualifier tournament of the Asia Cup 2022 had been postponed in July 2020. In the month of May in 2021, the Asian Cricket Council confirmed that they will not be holding the tournament. As a result, it got pushed to 2022 with the qualifying event being played in August of this year.

Aasia cup 2022 cricket schedule (full)

Asia Cup 2022 Super Four Schedule

Asia Cup 2022 Final schedule

The Asia Cup schedule has already been decided. The tournament will begin with the qualifiers starting on August 27 and it will go on until the final match on September 11.

Asia Cup 2022 Venue

The 2022 Asia Cup has officially been moved out of Sri Lanka and will now be hosted in the United Arab Emirates.” Considering the prevailing situation in Sri Lanka, the ACC after extensive deliberation has unanimously concluded that it would be appropriate to relocate the tournament from Sri Lanka to UAE,” a release from the Asian Cricket Council read.

The venue for the Asia Cup 2022 has seen plenty of changes since it was initially announced. The Asian Cricket Council first handed the rights to the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) in 2018 but the specific location was unclear whether the tournament would be hosted in Pakistan or the United Arab Emirates which has also recently served as a cricketing base for the Pakistan Cricket team.

In June 2020, the Pakistan Cricket Board, after a meeting with the Asian Cricket Council said that they would be willing to let Sri Lanka host the matches as India were unwilling to travel to Pakistan.

With all the matches set to be hosted in Sri Lanka, doubts arose on the viability of the idea when the country plunged into economic and social chaos in 2022. In June 2022, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said in parliament that the economy had collapsed, leaving it unable to pay for essentials.

As a result, Asia Cup 2022 will be played across three different venues in the UAE: the Dubai International Cricket Stadium in Dubai, the Sheikh Bin Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi, and the Sharjah International Cricket Stadium in Sharjah.

Asia cup 2022 cricket team list: Full Squad

A total of six teams will be participating in this year’s edition of the Asia Cup. Five confirmed teams have already booked their direct slots in the competition. All the teams that play Test match cricket in the continent – India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Afghanistan have already earned direct qualification to the tournament. Meanwhile, the sixth team will be decided after the qualifying round.

India

India are the record holders of the Asia Cup trophy. They have won the tournament on seven different occasions in history and are also the defending champions, having won the Asia Cup in 2018 with that tournament also being held in the United Arab Emirates.

India are familiar with the pressure and expectations of the Asia Cup and have one of the strongest squads in the world. They also have enough depth in their team to put up a strong challenge and India will start as favourites once again.

Squad: Rohit Sharma (c), KL Rahul (vc), Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya, Rishabh Pant (wk), Deepak Hooda, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Yuzvendra Chahal, Ravi Bishnoi, Avesh Khan, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Arshdeep Singh

Pakistan

Pakistan have won the Asia Cup trophy twice in their history – in 2000 and 2012. In the most recent edition of the tournament in 2018, they finished third in the Super Four stage after winning just one of their three fixtures and as a result, failed to make it to the final.

Pakistan have improved massively and they even progressed to the semi-finals of the T20 World Cup 2021 in UAE last year. They are well versed with the conditions and the weather of UAE and will also be among the favourites to win, along with arch-rivals India.

Squad: Babar Azam (c), Shadab Khan (vc), Asif Ali, Fakhar Zaman, Haider Ali, Haris Rauf, Iftikhar Ahmed, Khushdil Shah, Mohammed Nawaz, Mohammed Rizwan, Mohammed Wasim, Naseem Shah, Shaheen Afridi, Shahnawaz Dahani, Usman Qadir

Sri Lanka

After India, Sri Lanka are the most successful team in Asia Cup history. They have lifted the trophy five times, most recently in 2014 when the tournament was held in Bangladesh. Sri Lanka have been on a downward spiral in recent years and they were eliminated from the group stage in the 2018 Asia Cup. The Lankan lions have had to go through a learning curve in recent years which might be set to continue here as well.

Squad: Yet to be announced 

Bangladesh

Bangladesh have never won the Asia Cup before and have finished runners-up on two occasions – 2012 and 2018. Bangladesh came extremely close to winning their first Asia Cup trophy in 2018 but ended up losing on the final delivery against India, who won the match by three wickets. Bangladesh will be expected to qualify for the Super Four but aren’t genuine challengers for the title.

Squad: Shakib Al Hasan (c), Anamul Haque, Mushfiqur Rahim, Afif Hossain, Mosaddek Hossain, Mahmud Ullah, Mahedi Hasan, Mohammad Saifuddin, Hasan Mahmud, Mustafizur Rahman, Nasum Ahmed, Sabbir Rahman, Mehidy Hasan Miraz, Ebadot Hossain, Parvez Hossain Emon, Nurul Hasan Sohan, Taskin Ahmed.

Afghanistan

Afghanistan have been playing in the Asia Cup only since 2014 and they are also yet to win the competition. Their best result has been a Super Four finish in 2018 and the same will be expected from them this time around as well.

Squad: 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. Nijat Masoud, Qais Ahmad, and Sharafuddin Ashraf are the three players, who are part of the team as reserves.

Hosts United Arab Emirates, their neighbours Kuwait and Eastern region teams Singapore and Hong Kong will all be competing in the qualifiers in order to book a slot for themselves in the main event of the tournament.

UAE and Kuwait had made it to the qualifiers after finishing first and second in the ACC Western region event in 2020 while Singapore and Hong Kong did the same from the eastern region.

Asia Cup 2022: Groups and Format

This year’s Asia Cup tournament will be played in the T20 format and will present participating teams the opportunity to prepare for the upcoming T20 World Cup 2022 in Australia.

Back in 2015, the ICC had announced that the Asia Cup will be organised in the format of the ICC tournament succeeding it. As the T20 World Cup will be held this year, hence the format of the Asia Cup is T20.

Asia Cup was held in the 20-over format for the first time in 2016 just before the T20 World Cup that year. In 2018, it was played in the 50-over One Day format as it was followed by the ICC Cricket World Cup in England and Wales in 2019.

FAQs

When will Asia Cup 2022 be played?

The Asia Cup 2022 will start with the qualifiers on August 27 and the final is set to be played on September 11.

Who won the last Asia Cup tournament?

The Indian cricket team won the last edition of the Asia Cup tournament which was held in the 50-over format in 2018. India defeated Bangladesh by three wickets in the final to win the Asia Cup trophy.

When is the Asia Cup 2022 final?

The Asia Cup 2022 final will be held on September 11 at the Dubai International Stadium in Dubai.

How many teams participate in the Asia Cup?

This year, a total of six teams will participate in the main event of the Asia Cup. Five teams have already been confirmed while the sixth team will be decided on the basis of qualifiers.

Which is the most successful team in Asia Cup history?

The Indian cricket team is the most successful team in the history of the Asia Cup. They have won the competition a record seven times, with Sri Lanka coming in second with five wins.