A sneak peek at Pakistan's chances in Asia Cup 2025

Pakistan will enter into the Asia Cup as a unit which should reach, at least, the final of the eight-nation continental showpiece which will formally kick off on Tuesday (today) with the Group B opener between Afghanistan and Hong Kong at the Abu Dhabi International Cricket Stadium.

In the presence of arch-rivals and reigning T20 world champions India, it would not be a cake-walk event for the Green-shirts who may see bad days despite the fact that they recently demolished Afghanistan by 75 runs in the final of the tri-nation series at Sharjah.

Pakistan twice defeated Afghanistan in the series as the latter failed with the bat on both occasions on the spin-friendly tracks at the famous Sharjah Stadium.

But Pakistan have their own problems. The actual fight for the title in the continental event is highly expected to be held between Pakistan and India. Both the arch-rivals, having not played each other for the last 12 years in a bilateral series, are in the same group. And they may face each other three times in the tournament if they both reach the September 28 final.

The event will miss a galaxy of stars including former batting greats Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan. The first two Indian stars have retired from T20s while the Pakistani stars have been left out of the T20 format for almost a year on the pretext that their strike-rate is not according to the modern-day cricket.

Batting concerns

Pakistan may feel the absence of experience against India on the UAE wickets which are normally slow and turning ones.

Pakistan’s inconsistent batting performance and the batsmen’s vulnerability against the quality spin in the tri-series is a big question mark and should be a worrying sign for the coach Mike Hesson who is fond of keeping big-hitters in the side since his taking charge as a head coach for the home series against Bangladesh a few months ago.

Skipper Agha Salman is the only batsman who was seen negotiating spin well, barring the final where he struggled, and is expected that he will do well especially against India when there will be a lot of pressure.

Unlike in the tri-series Asia Cup will have its own pressure. Pakistani openers have failed to put up a solid performance in the recent matches and the top and middle order collapses were seen. Fakhar Zaman, Agha and Saim Ayub will need to bat with absolute responsibility especially in the low-scoring games when the wicket will pose a big challenge to the batsmen.

Saim can play an anchor role if is advised by coach as he had shown that against South Africa last year with his head down.

Sahibzada Farhan was also seen off-colour in the tri-nation series and struggled where the ball slightly deviated whether it is against the pace bowler or spinner.

Big hitting Hasan Nawaz is a bright prospect but he will have to take the responsibility. If he is able to pick the right ball then he could pose a challenge even to India in the event.

Stumper Mohammad Haris’ below-par marathon bad patch should be a worrying sign for Hesson and it would be seen whether he will rest him and hand gloves to Farhan or will continue to play him.

Although Pakistan will begin their journey on September 12 with the opener against Oman but their big test will be on September 14 (Sunday) against India.

Indo-Pak squad comparison

Pakistani spinners seem in good form, especially Mohammad Nawaz, the hero of the tri-nation series, but in the death overs Pakistan will need to raise their bowling performance especially against India.

India, on the other hand, seem much better side as compared to Pakistan. They have depth in their batting and bowling. Shubman Gill’s return to the side after a long time will give batting stability to them.

Test captain Shubman, who will act as deputy to Suryakumar Yadav in the event, will need to play an anchor role. He is expected to open the innings with Abhishek Sharma, although both have contrasting batting style with Shubman being more selective in his approach. India will start their journey on Wednesday (tomorrow) with their show against the UAE at the Dubai International Stadium.

India will play a T20 game after seven months and they may face some problems in the start to get the right momentum but the squad they have it is highly expected that it would be difficult to beat them unless any extraordinary is done by their opponents on a given day.

Besides skipper and Gill, Indian team is loaded with fine players in the shape of Hardik Pandya, Arshdeep Singh, Abhishek Sharma, Tilak Varma, Shivam Dube, Axar Patel, Jitesh Sharma (wicketkeeper), Jasprit Bumrah, Varun Chakravarthy, Kuldeep Yadav, Harshit Rana, Rinku Singh, Sanju Samson (wicketkeeper).

Bumrah will be the backbone of Indian bowling. He is a sort of bowler who finds his right length quite early and other bowlers also learn from his approach during the game.

Expected three matches between Pakistan and India would be a big bonus to the event financially being hosted by the BCCI following big uncertainties for months as it was not known whether India will feature or not.

Having qualified for the last T20 World Cup semi-finals, Afghanistan still can spring surprises during the event but it is a fact that their batting was seen a great concerns in the tri-series.

There is no doubt that they have done well in bowling especially their spin quartet including Rashid Khan, Mohammad Nabi, Noor Ahmed and Ghazanfar have been delivering nicely.

Afghanistan lacks in pace attack. Left-armer Fazalhaq Farooqi was impressive in the tri-series but on the other hand Azmatullah Omarzai was seen highly expensive and that also dented Afghans’ bowling success.

Sri Lanka’s composition and their recent form in international circuit does not rate them a threat to top teams like India and Pakistan and so is the case with Bangladesh who struggle normally outside their home soil.

Having faced a 2-1 defeat at the hands of Bangladesh at home Sri Lanka also once were folded by Zimbabwe for just 80 in the second game of the three-match series on September 6 at Harare which Zimbabwe won by five wickets, although eventually the tourists won the series 2-1.