Asia Cup is the only continental competition in cricket that is played between Asian cricket teams. In recent years, India has dominated the tournament, and will be willing to continue the same.
In this blog, we will look into the Asia cup winners, their format, host nations, and details about the much-awaited match between India vs Pakistan.
Date of Asia cup 2022
The Asia Cup 2022 will be held in UAE from 27th August to 11th September.
Teams participating in Asia cup 2022
India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan are the teams that have already qualified for the group stage. Hong Kong, Kuwait, Singapore, and UAE will confront each other to grab the remaining 6th position.
Asia Cup 2022 Venue
Initially, the Asia Cup 2022 was scheduled in Sri Lanka. But as Sri Lanka is going through a political and economic crisis, the cricket tournament will be hosted in UAE. The entire world’s eyes will be on 28th August, when the arch-rivals India and Pakistan will lock horns in the T20 tournament.
Asia Cup Winners
As discussed earlier, the Asia Cup has been dominated by India, especially since 2010. Since the start of the last decade, there have been a total of 5 tournaments and on 3 occasions India has come out victorious. This tournament is very important considering the ICC T20 World Cup in Australia which is just around the corner. That’s why, the tournament will also be conducted in the T20 format, allowing teams to have a dry run of the upcoming big event.
Asia Cup Winners List
| Edition | Year | Winner | Won by | Runner-up | Host |
| 1st | 1984 | India | India won | Sri Lanka | UAE |
| 2nd | 1986 | Sri Lanka | 5 wickets | Pakistan | Sri Lanka |
| 3rd | 1988 | India | 6 wickets | Sri Lanka | Bangladesh |
| 4th | 1990-91 | India | 7 wickets | Sri Lanka | India |
| 5th | 1995 | India | 8 wickets | Sri Lanka | UAE |
| 6th | 1997 | Sri Lanka | 8 wickets | India | Sri Lanka |
| 7th | 2000 | Pakistan | 39 runs | Sri Lanka | Bangladesh |
| 8th | 2004 | Sri Lanka | 25 runs | India | Sri Lanka |
| 9th | 2008 | Sri Lanka | 100 runs | India | Pakistan |
| 10th | 2010 | India | 81 runs | Sri Lanka | Sri Lanka |
| 11th | 2012 | Pakistan | 2 runs | Bangladesh | Bangladesh |
| 12th | 2014 | Sri Lanka | 5 wickets | Pakistan | Bangladesh |
| 13th | 2016 | India | 8 wickets | Bangladesh | Bangladesh |
| 14th | 2018 | India | 3 wickets | Bangladesh | UAE |
Asia Cup- Most Wins
| Rank | Teams | Appearance | Titles | Runners-up |
| 1 | India | 13 | 7 | 3 |
| 2 | Sri Lanka | 14 | 5 | 6 |
| 3 | Pakistan | 13 | 2 | 2 |
| 4 | Bangladesh | 12 | 0 | 3 |
Asia Cup Winners by year
| Team | Winning Years |
| India | 1984, 1988, 1990–91, 1995, 2010, 2016 & 2018 |
| Sri Lanka | 1986, 1997, 2004, 2008, & 2014 |
| Pakistan | 2000 & 2012 |
For any neutral cricket fan, the condition of cricket in Asian countries is not very exciting. Other than India, almost all the Asian teams who were once the superpowers in cricket, especially in the ODI format, are now performing poorly, be it Sri Lanka or Pakistan.
Sri Lanka is 5 times the champions of the Asia Cup and Pakistan two times. However, the current situation in both nations is very gloomy. Both the countries are going through a torrid time and obviously, it is not helping the game of cricket. Bangladesh over the last few years have shown glimpses of its potential, but they ultimately fail against bigger and better opponents like India.
-- Advertisement --The Host Nation- Asia Cup 2022
UAE has been a savior for cricket. UAE hosts IPL during elections in India and during lock-downs as well. UAE hosts ICC T20 World Cup on behalf of India. This time UAE will help Sri Lanka and host the Asia Cup 2022. This will be UAE’s 4th time hosting this amazing tournament.
As usual, Dubai International Cricket Stadium, Sharjah Cricket Stadium, and Abu Dhabi Cricket Stadium are the three grounds that will host all the games.
Asia Cup 2022 Format
Asia Cup was an ODI tournament till 2016. Just like this year’s situation, the 2016 Asia Cup was also just before the ICC T20 World Cup. Hence teams decided to play the tournament in the shortest format.
The 2022 Asia Cup will be in the T20 format. This will allow all the teams to finalize their winning combination going into the ICC T20 World Cup 2022 which will commence on 16th October 2022 Down Under.
The six teams are divided into 2 groups of 3 teams each. The top 2 teams from each group will qualify for the Super Four Stage where all four teams will play against each other and the top teams will move to the final.
Asia Cup 2022 Squads
Only India and Pakistan have announced their squads for Asia Cup 2022 and they are as follows:-
Asia cup 2022 India squad
Rohit Sharma (c), KL Rahul, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant, Deepak Hooda, Dinesh Karthik, Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, R Ashwin, Yuzvendra Chahal, Ravi Bishnoi, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Arshdeep Singh, Avesh Khan. Standby: Shreyas Iyer, Axar Patel, Deepak Chahar.
Asia cup 2022 Pakistan squad
Babar Azam (c), Shadab Khan, Asif Ali, Fakhar Zaman, Haider Ali, Haris Rauf, Iftikhar Ahmed, Khushdil Shah, Mohammad Nawaz, Mohammad Rizwan, Mohammad Wasim Jnr, Naseem Shah, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Shahnawaz Dahani, Usman Qadir.
