Asia Cup 2025: Who Can Stop India? The Rivals Gunning For Glory

As the action cues up, <strong>Karan Pradhan</strong> runs through the stats, squads, rivalries and surprises that could define the most wide-open edition of the Asia Cup yet.

Eight nations will vie for the Asia Cup. Image via Asian Cricket Council

THE third T20 edition of the Asia Cup and the 17th overall is almost upon us. Through a quirk of the Asian Cricket Council’s premier competition, while India arrived in host nation UAE as defending champions (crowned in 2023), it is actually Sri Lanka who won the last T20 Asia Cup back in 2022 and enter this year’s edition as defending format champions, to coin a phrase. Regardless, it all kicks off on Tuesday, September 9 with Afghanistan going head to head with Hong Kong. With Rashid Khan and Co looking to start things off with a comprehensive win in their bid to cement a place in the next stage, let’s take a closer look at what we can expect from this tournament.

THE TALE OF THE TAPE

In order to compare like and like, we’ll only focus on the 2016 and 2022 Asia Cups that were both contested in the T20 format. Apart from a poor showing in the Super 4s of the 2022 edition where successive defeats to Pakistan and Sri Lanka saw India miss out on a finals berth, the Suryakumar Yadav-led team has been a juggernaut in T20 Asia Cups. A win record of 80% puts India head and shoulders above nearest competitor Sri Lanka (with 60%), and Pakistan and Afghanistan (50%).

In terms of individual performers too, India retains top spot. Among batters, Virat Kohli has been the highest scorer with 429 runs from nine innings, followed by Pakistani powerhouse Rizwan Khan (281 from six) and Rohit Sharma (271 from nine). With the ball, it’s Bhuvneshwar Kumar who rules the roost with 13 wickets from six matches. Close behind him are the UAE’s Amjad Javed (12 from seven) and Mohammad Naveed (11 from seven).

As is the case with most tournaments these days — particularly those in Asian conditions — India will start as firm favourites. The team’s only T20 outing this year was a bilateral rubber against England, which was won handsomely. Despite this apparent lack of match practice, regularly facing up to some of the world’s best players in the IPL will keep the Indian players in good nick. But if not India, then who?

Outside of the unarguable favourites, the 2025 T20 Asia Cup is probably the most open one yet. Let’s run through the list. The year’s been a mixed one for Pakistan with series defeats against New Zealand and Bangladesh being followed by a solid performance in the Sharjah triseries against Afghanistan and the UAE. The Salman Ali Agha-led side will be facing their neighbours in the final later today. Sri Lanka, on their part, have not been in the greatest touch in the format, losing bilateral series to New Zealand and Bangladesh this year, and at the time of writing, are staring a series defeat to Zimbabwe in the face.

Looking beyond the region’s most experienced cricketing nations, Bangladesh seem to be on a run of hot form, pushing aside Pakistan, Sri Lanka, the Netherlands and West Indies in recent times. However, series defeats to Afghanistan and the UAE mean they can ill afford to take anything for granted. T20 World Cup 2024 semi-finalists Afghanistan have not played a whole load of cricket in the shortest format this year. However, the once-minnows have established a giant-killer reputation that their subcontinental rivals would do well to respect.

KEEP AN EYE OUT FOR…

The most exciting thing about multilateral tournaments is that you never know which match is going to produce a cracking contest — and whom the result could, in turn, impact. With that in mind let’s cast an eye at the likeliest candidates to provide some must-watch cricket.

India vs Pakistan, September 14: A no-brainer though this might seem on paper, the reality is that most matches between the two subcontinental giants have lacked a bit of oomph, for want of a better word, for some time now. But for every handful of one-sided affairs, there’s an absolute thriller like the June 9, 2024 T20 World Cup match at the Nassau County International Cricket Stadium or the October 23, 2022 T20 World Cup game at the MCG.

While India will be squaring up against Pakistan for the first time in recent memory without Kohli and Rohit, Pakistan will also be facing India with a completely different top order to the one that last faced them. On the bowling side of things, there’s a lot more familiarity, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s going to be predictable. A new era of Indian cricket has begun and Pakistani cricket has long been awaiting a fresh wind in its sails. You won’t want to miss a single ball of this match.

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Bangladesh vs Sri Lanka, September 13: The youngest rivalry in world cricket — and quite possibly the strangest — is one of the more fascinating ones around. It may not have the number of seasons or episodes as the India-Pakistan or England-Australia ones, but what it lacks in history, it more than makes up for in intensity. Over the past few years, the two sides have had some memorable clashes capped with large helpings of the “naagin dance”.

Next week’s encounter is likely to be must-watch television and it’s not only because of the rivalry. It’s the second group stage match for both teams and there’s a good chance one of the two might be eliminated by the time the last run has been scored/wicket has fallen. Considering Afghanistan is one of the other two teams in the group (from which only two can proceed to the Super 4s), competition will be tight. Neither the Tigers nor the Lions will want to cede an inch to the other, and this could be one of the feistiest encounters of the tournament.

UAE vs Oman, September 15: This brings us to a very fledgling rivalry, the West Asian Derby, if you will. The two teams have a T20 head-to-head record of four wins apiece from eight played. The UAE took the plaudits in their last encounter in the format, in the Men’s Gulf T20I Championship back in late 2024, and Oman will be champing at the bit for a measure of retribution.

The other two teams in UAE and Oman’s group are India and Pakistan, so it’s a fair assumption that the group stage is where the West Asian nations’ journey in this tournament will more likely than not come to an end. That means this match is a virtual title fight — with the title being bragging rights. They may not possess the Afridis, Mushfiqurs, Pandyas and Nissankas their fellow participants do, but there’ll be more than enough fight in UAE and Oman to make this encounter one of the matches of the tourney.

Karan Pradhan is editor-in-chief of Story Mode a gaming and gaming-adjacent magazine. Follow him on X/Twitter @karanpradhan_

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