The last men’s Asia Cup 2023 was played in Pakistan. Still, because of the poor relationships between the country and India, the latter proposed a hybrid model and played all of their games in Sri Lanka, including their contest against the Green Brigade.
India went on to win the tournament, after reaching the final with an unbeaten run, having won three of their encounters in the first four games excluding the wash-out fixture against Pakistan in their opening game of the event.
In the final of the Asia Cup 2023, India faced Sri Lanka, who were bundled out for just 50 runs thanks to the magical spell of bowling from pacer Mohammad Siraj, in the first inning, before the opening partnership of Shubman Gill and Ishan Kishan chased down the score quite comfortably.
Men’s Asia Cup 2025 to be played in this format
The defending champions, India is set to host the upcoming season of the Men’s Asia Cup 2025. Generally, the format of these tournaments gets decided by keeping a look at the upcoming ICC tournament, and because in 2026, it will be a T20 World Cup, the Asia Cup too will be played in the shortest format of the game.
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After that, there is the 2027 ODI World Cup scheduled in South Africa, which means the 2027 edition of the Men’s Asia Cup will switch to the ODI format and will be hosted by Bangladesh.
Both the editions in 2025 and 2027 will be played among the six teams- India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, and a sixth team which will be determined based on the qualifying event.
The upcoming season of the Women’s Asia Cup will also be played in T20 format and take place in 2026. The information for the development has been revealed in the Asia Cricket Council’s (ACC) release of an Invitation for Expressions of Interest (IEOI) document which was provided on Saturday.
This invites the interested parties to submit their IEOI for ACC Sponsorship rights for the next four-year period from 2024 to 2027. The document also mentioned that all the details, including the schedules, dates, formats, and venues for the tournaments are tentative and subject to change at the ACC’s discretion.
In the recently finished Women’s Asia Cup 2023 in Sri Lanka, the host blew away the Indian team to earn their first title of the tournament. At the Rangiri Dambulla International Stadium, Harmanpreet Kaur on winning the toss, opted to bat first.
Smriti Mandhana, the left-handed opening batter of the blue brigade notched up a 60-run knock in 47 balls with the help of 10 boundaries at a strike rate of 127.66. Jamimah Rodrigues also smashed a 29-run knock in 16 balls, while the wicket-keeper batter Richa Ghosh also nailed 30 runs in 14 balls, shouldering on four boundaries and one six.
The middle order of the Indian batting struggled a lot, and that meant they could reach only 165/6 in their allotted 20 overs. Sri Lanka didn’t start well, losing the opening batter Vishmi Gunaratne for an individual score of 1. But captain Chamari Athapaththu creamed a 61-run knock in 43 balls, with the help of nine boundaries and a couple of sixes.
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The number three batter Harshitha Madavi scored an unbeaten 69 runs in 51 balls, while Kavisha Dilhari remained unbeaten on 30 runs in 16 balls, thanks to her one boundary and a couple of sixes, to chase down the score with eight wickets in hand.
After the final defeat in the Asia Cup, India now can think of better preparations, looking forward to the upcoming T20 World Cup 2024 in Bangladesh.