Prospect of India vs Pakistan T20I clash excite fans with Asia Cup 2022 set to begin from Aug 27

The Asia Cup 2022, which will be a T20I competition, is all set to be held in Sri Lanka between August 27 and September 11. The Qualifiers for the same will be played from August 20 onwards.

Hosted every two years, the Asia Cup tournament's 2020 edition was cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The Asian Cricket Council then revisited the possibility of hosting the tournament, scheduled to be played in Sri Lanka, in June 2021. However, the pandemic situation did not allow the organisers to carry on with the tournament as per schedule.

The Men in Blue remain the most dominant team in Asia Cup history. Since its inception in 1984, India has won the Asia Cup title seven times, while Sri Lanka remains the second most successful team with five trophy wins. Pakistan has won the remaining two times.

The last edition of the Asia Cup was held in 2018, and it was an ODI format. Although the tournament was to be held in India, it was moved to the United Arab Emirates at the last moment owing to the political tensions between India and Pakistan.

India were the defending champions and retained their title after beating Bangladesh by three wickets in the fina. India did not suffer a single defeat in the tournament, with two wins each against Pakistan & Bangladesh, a solitary win against Hong Kong, and a tie with Afghanistan. Shikhar Dhawan, who was the top scorer with 342 runs in five matches, was awarded Man of the Series.

Asia Cup 2022 will have six teams - India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Afghanistan and a Qualifier. The Qualifier tournament will be played between UAE and Kuwait, which progressed from 2020 ACC Western Region T20, and Singapore and Hong Kong, which progressed from the 2020 ACC Eastern Region T20.

Following the announcement by the ACC AGM in Colombo on Saturday, cricket fans took to Twitter to express their joy over the prospect of seeing India face arch-rivals Pakistan in the T20 format once again. The last time the two nations faced each other in the shortest format of the game was during the T20 World Cup 2021, which resulted in Pakistan beating India by ten wickets. Here's a look at some of the reactions posted on Twitter:

Meanwhile, BCCI Secretary Jay Shah's term as the President of Asian Cricket Council has been unanimously extended by a year until the 2024 ACC AGM.