Barring their only blemish in the last edition of the tournament, India have won all the Asia Cup titles since the event’s inception in 2004 (4 titles in ODI format and 2 in T20 version). The Asia Cup was changed from ODIs to T20I in 2012 and India have won twice, while losing to hosts Bangladesh in the last edition in 2018.
India would look to reassert their continental dominance in the tournament, which returns after a hiatus of four years. The 2020 edition of the event in Bangladesh was first postponed to 2021 due to the Covid-19 pandemic before being cancelled altogether.
After claiming a historic silver medal at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games, where women’s cricket made its debut in T20 format, India suffered a 1-2 away defeat against England earlier this month. But they made a fantastic turnaround in the ODIs, clean-sweeping England 3-0 to record a historic series victory, which marked a glorious end to Indian legend Jhulan Goswami’s international career.
The Indian series win, however, reignited an intense debate over the spirit of the game after allrounder Deepti Sharma ran out Charlie Dean during the seriesclinching third ODI as the English batter backed up at the non-striker’s end. The tournament involves seven teams — India, Pakistan, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, UAE and hosts Bangladesh. All sides will play each other in a round-robin format with the top four qualifying for semi-finals.
