Highlights
- India won their first Asia Cup in 1984 under the leadership of Sunil Gavaskar
- As of now, India has seven Asia Cup titles to their name
- Team India play their first match against Pakistan on August 28, 2022
Asia Cup 2022: Team India on most occasions has dominated and outplayed the opposition as far as the Asian Tournament is concerned. The Asia Cup is almost here and the blue brigade looks all set to dominate the tournament. India who is the defending champion will look to retain their title and move ahead with positivity on the road that leads them to the World T20I that is to be played in Australia later this year. This particular edition of the Asia Cup will be played in a 20-over format and all the participating Asian nations will have a small teaser about what the World Cup might have in store for them. The participating teams might be looking at this event as a chance to put their plans and preparations in order but they certainly will play out of their skins to outplay their opposition and stamp their authority on the multi-nation cricketing tournament.
Team India is the most successful team as far as its record in the Asia Cup is concerned. The Indian team now has seven Asia Cup titles to its name (1984, 1988, 1990-91, 1995, 2010, 2016, 2018) and they will be eyeing their 8th championship when they take the field against arch-rivals Pakistan on August 28, 2022. The tournament will be played in a double round-robin format followed by the final. Team India's dominance in this cricketing carnival dates back to the year 1984 when the blue brigade won the championship for the first time under the leadership of Sunil Gavaskar. With just three teams playing which included India, Sri Lanka, and Pakistan, Gavaskar-led India faced Sri Lanka in the final and won the trophy for the very first time. Just one year after their famous victory at Lord's against the mighty West Indies in the year 1983, team India lived up to their tag of World Champions and dominated the tournament, and ended up topping the points table. They won both their matches, secured eight valuable points, and were later crowned champions. Surinder Khanna enjoyed a splendid run in this particular tournament as he scored 107 runs and bagged the "Player of the Tournament" award.
38 years down the line and the game taking major leaps since Gavaskar led the Indian team to their maiden Asia Cup title, Rohit Sharma and co. will soon embark on their journey to win their 8th Asia Cup trophy. The senior players such as Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Ravindra Jadeja, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, and others who were rested for the Zimbabwe tour have all assembled in the United Arab Emirates and have started to hone their skills ahead of the marquee Indo-Pak clash. VVS Laxman has been named as the interim Head Coach and he will try and ensure that he and his methods reap positive results for team India in the absence of regular coach Rahul Dravid aka the wall.
India’s squad for Asia Cup:
Rohit Sharma (Captain), KL Rahul (vice-captain), Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Deepak Hooda, Rishabh Pant (wicket-keeper), Dinesh Karthik (wicket-keeper), Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, R. Ashwin, Yuzvendra Chahal, Ravi Bishnoi, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Arshdeep Singh, Avesh Khan
