LAHORE (Staff Report) – The 13th edition of Asia Cup will be started on 24 February in Bangladesh. It will be the last T20 cricket tournament to take place ahead of coveted ICC World T20 in India.
This is the first time that Asia Cup will be played in the T20 format, and the fifth occasion when Bangladesh will be hosting the tournament.
Five teams are participating, which includes host Bangladesh, Sri Lanka (defending champions), India, Pakistan, and one ICC associate member, which is to be determined through a qualifier scheduled to be played from 19 to 22 February 2016.
United Arab Emirates, Hong Kong, Afghanistan and Oman are the countries, who will fight to grab the sole qualifier spot.
Here is good news for cricket fans in Pakistan and India, despite the existing road-blocks in the resumption of Indo-Pak bilateral cricket series, the arch-rivals will play each other on 27 February.
The final will be held on March 5. All the matches will be played at Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium, Mirpur.
Teams: Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan (1 Qualifier team)
Time: All the matches will start from 7:00 (PST), 1:30 pm (GMT), 7:30 pm (LOCAL)
TV listing: Star Sports 1, 3, HD1 & HD3
Live streaming: Star Sports website, Hotstar
Here’s the complete schedule:
February 24: Bangladesh vs India
February 25: Sri Lanka vs TBD
February 26: Bangladesh vs TBD
February 27: India vs Pakistan
February 28: Bangladesh vs Sri Lanka
February 29: Pakistan vs TBD
March 1: India vs Sri Lanka
March 2: Bangladesh vs Pakistan
March 3: India vs TBD
March 4: Pakistan vs Sri Lanka
March 5: Final
Squads
India: MS Dhoni (Captain & WK), Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Yuvraj Singh, Ravindra Jadeja, Hardik Pandya, Ravichandran Ashwin, Jasprit Bumrah, Ashish Nehra, Suresh Raina, Ajinkya Rahane, Harbhajan Singh, Mohammed Shami, Pawan Negi.
Bangladesh: (Provisional 25-man squad)
Tamim Iqbal, Soumya Sarkar, Imrul Kayes, Litton Kumer Das, Mosaddek Hossain, Mushfiqur Rahim, Mohammad Mithun, Nurul Hasan, Shakib Al Hasan, Mahmudullah, Nasir Hossain, Sabbir Rahman, Shuvagata Hom Chowdhury, Ariful Haque, Arafat Sunny, Mashrafe Bin Mortaza, Mustafizur Rahman, Abu Haider Rony, Al-Amin Hossain, Shafiul Islam, Mohammad Shahid , Abul Hasan, Taskin Ahmed, Kamrul Islam Rabbi, Muktar Ali.
Pakistan:
Squad Shahid Afridi (capt), Mohammad Hafeez, Shoaib Malik, Umar Akmal, Sarfraz Ahmed, Babar Azam, Iftikhar Ahmed, Imad Wasim, Anwar Ali, Mohammad Irfan, Wahab Riaz, Mohammad Amir, Mohammad Nawaz, Khurram Manzoor, Rumman Raees
Sri Lanka are yet to announce their squads.
