After knocking on the doors for a long and creating a hailstorm in Bangladesh’s cricket fraternity, the 2022 Asia Cup is finally here, and Hong Kong were the last team to qualify.
India, Pakistan, and Hong Kong are in group A, with Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and Afghanistan in group B.
While India are the hot favourites to win the tournament, Afghanistan can be the dark horse in familiar UAE conditions. Bangladesh, on the other hand, are in turmoil, and thus, a group stage exit may not be a big surprise.
Bangladesh: Set for disappointment
Before going into the Asia Cup, Bangladesh went through loads of turmoil. They changed their captain, brought in a head coach (or as BCB like to say it, a technical consultant) just two days before the team left for UAE, and then the former T20 head coach blasted the board for their behaviour.
The Tigers lack a lot of things to find success in T20s, and with Liton Das, Nurul Hasan Sohan, and Hasan Mahmud out, they might just get bamboozled early on.
Their only hope might be Shakib Al Hasan being the captain and Afif Hossain batting up the order. The former has often provided miracles, and they will be hoping for another one in the upcoming event.
India: Hot favourites
Despite the injury to their star pacer Jasprit Bumrah, India are leading the title race for the title. And even with Rohit Sharma not being regularly match fit in recent times and Virat Kohli struggling with form.
India's biggest strength will be their middle order, which includes the likes of Hardik Pandya, Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant, and Dinesh Karthik. And the cherry on top is that all these batters have shown fine form in the recent past, scoring runs for fun.
Their bowling, despite Bumrah’s exclusion, is pretty stacked. The spin department bolsters the likes of Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Yuzvendra Chahal, and Ravi Bishnoi, along with pacers Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Arshdeep Singh, Avesh Khan.
In the slowish wickets in UAE, these pacers, who are effective with their variations, might spell trouble, and the spinners are likely to have a field day.
Pakistan: No Shaheen, no party?
Pakistan’s Asia Cup hopes were dented heavily when Shaheen Shah Afridi was ruled out of the Asia Cup (the Indian top-order would feel very differently). Their extraordinary T20 World Cup campaign last year depended heavily on Shaheen’s opening spell, and without him, their bowling can end up being a tad dull.
In the left-arm pacer’s absence, Pakistan will look to their two other best players, skipper Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan. They will also hope that Fakhar Zaman, Shadab Khan, and Asif Ali turn up to take them over the line, and they remain solid contenders for the final.
Sri Lanka: Solid on paper
With the likes of Dasun Shanaka, Niroshan Dickwella, Avishka Fernando, Wanindu Hasaranga, and Bhanuka Rajapaksa, Sri Lanka's squad looks solid on paper. Still, their hopes have been severely dented with the injury to the spearhead of their pace-bowling attack, Dushmantha Chameera.
Chameera had been their best bowler for some time now with raw pace and brilliant accuracy, and his injury has left them with an inexperienced pace lineup.
But their spinners can cover up for it as they have Maheesh Theekshana, Jeffrey Vandersay, Praveen Jayawickrama besides leg-spinner Hasaranga. Hasaranga’s IPL experience might come in handy, and if utilised properly, they do have a shot at the final.
Afghanistan: The dark horses
UAE is a familiar country to Afghanistan as they have played 38 T20Is there, winning 28 out of them. And on those sluggish pitches, they will be hoping to unleash their spin trident of Rashid Khan, Mujeeb-ur-Rahman, and Mohammad Nabi.
Their bowling will have an X-factor in Fazalhaq Farooqi, who is brilliant with both the new and old ball. Naveen ul Haq and Azmatullah Omarzai will accompany him.
Their batting is also pretty well-stacked, with the likes of Hashmatullah Shahidi, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Hazratullah Zazai, Nabi, and Nazibullah Zadran.
All in all, they might finally do justice to their talent pool and rack up a surprise in this year’s fight for Asian supremacy.
Hong Kong: Only to participate
Hong Kong have done well to beat hosts UAE in the qualifiers to reach the final stage, but that might be it.
They will face India and Pakistan in the first round, meaning they will be lucky even to fight against either of the favourites.
Among their batsmen, Yasim Murtaza, Babar Hayat, and captain Nizakat Khan are the ones to keep an eye on. Off-spinner Ehsan Khan might find some limelight among the bowlers as he ended the qualifiers with nine wickets in three matches.
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