Asia Cup 2023: Schedule, Fixtures & Full Squads

The 16th edition of the ACC Men’s Asia Cup will begin on August 30, 2023. The tournament will be played in Pakistan and Sri Lanka. A total of 13 One Day Internationals will be played spanning across 19 days and in two different countries.

The Asian sides will look to sort things out as they prepare for the World Cup, and the Asia Cup provides them with the perfect platform to do so. Teams can try and test players and combinations against top sides and in conditions that will be fairly similar to the Indian conditions.

Also Read: ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023 – All you need to know

Here is all you need to know about the Asia Cup:

How many teams will play in the Asia Cup?

6 teams in total will be fighting against one another in the Asia Cup.

The five full-time members of the Asian Cricket Council did not have to participate in qualifiers. These teams that got direct entry into the tournament are Pakistan, Sri Lanka, India, Bangladesh and Afghanistan.

Earlier in April and May this year, a total of 10 teams took part in the ACC Men’s Premier Cup to contest for the sixth and last spot at the Asia Cup. Nepal, who hosted that tournament, emerged victorious and confirmed their participation in the tournament alongside the other five big Asian sides.

Who qualified from the qualifiers for Asia Cup 2023?

It was Nepal who rose up to the occasion at home in the ACC Men’s Premier Cup and earned themselves a place at the Asia Cup.

The 10 teams were divided into two groups; each group with five sides apiece. The top two sides from each group proceeded to the knockout stage, where two semi-finals were played and then the all-important final. The two groups, in order of how the teams were ranked finally, were as follows:

Group A: Nepal, Oman, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Qatar

Group B: United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Hong Kong, Bahrain, Singapore

The first ranked team from Group A took on the second ranked team from Group B in the semi-final, and vice-versa.

Nepal’s game against Kuwait could not be completed due to rain, and as a result, Nepal proceeded to the final, courtesy of their first rank finish in the group stage. Anyhow, Kuwait were reduced to 37-6 chasing 282, meaning that the result would not have been too different even without the rain.

UAE won their semi-final by just 2 runs (DLS method). Oman, being at a position where they needed 47 runs to win with four wickets in hand, would certainly feel rain played spoilsport and dampened their chances of qualifying.

Nepal won the final in convincing fashion and confirmed their place at the Asia Cup. The top three sides at the ACC Men’s Premier Cup – Nepal, UAE and Oman – also booked their spots at the 2023 ACC Emerging Teams Asia Cup.

What are the groups?

Pakistan, India and Nepal will constitute Group A, while Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Afghanistan will form Group B.

According to ACC, irrespective of their rankings in the group stage, Pakistan will remain A1 and India will remain A2 if both qualify. For Group B, Sri Lanka would continue to be B1 while Bangladesh would be B2.

If Nepal and Afghanistan qualify for the next round from their respective groups, their position in the group stage standings would depend on whose place they are taking.

If Nepal, for example, qualifies alongside India, they will take the A1 spot while India would continue to be A2, and so on.

What are the venues?

The Asia Cup games will be hosted in Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Although Pakistan originally won the hosting rights, they will now be hosting just four games, while the remaining nine games will be played in Sri Lanka.

The tournament opener between Pakistan and Nepal is set to take place at Multan.

Earlier, Lahore was the venue chosen to host all the games that were to take place in Pakistan. However, the new Pakistan Cricket Board chairman, Zaka Ashraf, included Multan as the second Pakistani venue, while Lahore is now set to host a total of three games, including the only Super 4 match which Pakistan will host.

The Super 4 game will be contested between A1 and B2, meaning that if Pakistan qualify for the next round, they willl face Bangladesh or Afghanistan in front of their home crowd at Lahore.

The much anticipated India-Pakistan game is set to be held in Kandy. In case both sides qualify for the Super 4, the two giants will face each other in once again, but in Colombo that time around. There is a huge possibility of India and Pakistan going head to head twice within 10 days, and potentially thrice in 15 days if both make it to the final.

When will the squads be announced?

The ACC has not announced any deadline for the submission of final squads so far. With the tournament still several weeks away, no team has made public their Asia Cup squad.

Less than three weeks after the final of the Asia Cup, the focus would shift to the World Cup, which is set to commence on October 5 in India.

The short gap between the two tournaments would mean that teams may play their best possible elevens in the Asia Cup to figure things out before the mega-event in October. Confirmed Asia Cup squads are expected to be announced anytime in August.

What is the schedule of the Asia Cup 2023?

India takes on Pakistan on September 2 in the group stage, and then on September 10 in the Super 4 stage as well if both of them manage to defeat Nepal in the group stage. The group stage game will take place in Kandy, while the Super 4 game will take place in Colombo.

Afghanistan will play both their group-stage games at Gaddafi Stadium, Lahore. They will face Bangladesh on September 3, and defending champions, Sri Lanka, on September 5.

On September 6, A1 will lock horns with B2 in the only Super 4 game which will take place in Pakistan.

The final will take place in Colombo on September 17.

The full schedule as released by the Asian Cricket Council is as follows: