Following the Asian Cricket Council’s (ACC) Annual General Meeting, the venues and dates for the Asia Cup have been finalised. The tournament, which will be played in the T20 format, in view of the upcoming T20 World Cup next year, will run from September 9 to September 28. The ACC chair, Mohsin Naqvi, revealed that the group-stage game between Pakistan and India, both of whom are placed in Group A, will be played on September 14. However, no details about the remaining fixtures were shared.
“I am delighted to confirm the dates for the ACC Men’s Asia Cup 2025 in UAE,” Mohsin Naqvi said in a X (formerly Twitter) post. “The prestigious tournament will take place from September 9th to 28th. We look forward to a spectacular display of cricket!”
The tournament will see eight teams competing for the first time, two more than the last edition. Besides Pakistan and India, Oman and the UAE are the other two teams in Group A. Group B consists of Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Hong Kong, and Afghanistan. Bangladesh and Hong Kong will kick-start the tournament on September 9. UAE, Oman, and Hong Kong qualified for the tournament after finishing top three in the 2024 ACC Men’s Premier Cup.
The prospects of the Asia Cup were uncertain for months, due to the heightened tensions between Pakistan and India, following a military stand-off in May. Just last week, veteran Indian players boycotted a World Champions League (WCL) game against former Pakistan players, citing the same reason.
Rumours that India might pull out of the Asia Cup made the possibility of the tournament continuing slimmer. Even though they were subsequently denied by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), they did little to dispel doubts.
India is the official host of the tournament. Both sides earlier agreed to provide a neutral venue for the other team in case one hosted a multi-national event. Under the same agreement, with Pakistan as the host, India played all their Champions Trophy games, including the final, in the UAE in May.
Pakistan and India haven’t played bilaterally since 2013, the last time India hosted Pakistan for a white-ball series, due to political tensions between the two countries. However, their face-offs in multi-lateral tournaments have become more frequent. The rivalry is one of the most lucrative in the sport, and its exclusive nature in tournaments ensures eyeballs, increasing the commercial value of the game by multiple folds.
Besides the group stage game, Pakistan and India could potentially meet twice more in the tournament. Two teams from each group will proceed to play the Super Four stage, where, if both of the sides qualify, a match between them is almost a certainty. Additionally, a possible meet-up in the final could be their third encounter in less than a month.
India are the defending champions of the Asia Cup, having won the last edition in 2023 when the tournament was played in the ODI format. The last T20I-format Asia Cup was won by Sri Lanka a year earlier, when they defeated Pakistan in the final.
