The rescheduled Asia Cup 2022 will officially start on August 20 in Oman with the qualifier. The winners of the four-team qualifier will join India and Pakistan in Group A in the tournament proper, to be held in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) from August 27 to September 11. Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Afghanistan are in Group B. Now, four teams -- Singapore, Hong Kong, UAE and Kuwait -- will fight for the lone available spot. (More Cricket News)
Asia Cup 2022 qualifying matches will be played at the Al Amerat Cricket Ground in Muscat, Oman. All the qualifying matches will be telecast live on Star Sports Network. And live streaming of the Asia Cup 2022 qualifier will be available on Disney+ Hostar.
So, what is the Asia Cup 2022 Qualifier?
The qualifiers for Asia Cup 2022 started with the ACC T20s in 2020. A total of 16 teams were originally listed for the first stage; but Bhutan, China and Myanmar withdrew, leaving 13 countries -- Bahrain, Hong Kong, Iran, Kuwait, Maldives, Malaysia, Nepal, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Thailand and UAE -- in the fray.
The 13 teams were divided into western and eastern region groups. Bahrain, Qatar, Oman and Maldives (Group A) and UAE, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Iran (Group B) in the western group; and Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Nepal and Thailand in the eastern for a round-robin tournament.
Bahrain and Qatar, UAE and Kuwait -- the group winners and runner-ups -- featured in the playoffs semi-finals and the two finalists (UAE and Kuwait) advanced to the Asia Cup Qualifier, where they are joined by Singapore and Hong Kong, the two top teams from the eastern group.
In the qualifier, the four teams will compete in a round-robin competition with the winners earning the rights to rub shoulders with the continental big boys.
Asia Cup 2022 qualifier - schedule and fixtures
Match 1: Singapore vs Hong Kong on August 20 at 7:30 PM IST/06:00 PM local; SGP Vs HKG Scorecard
Match 2: United Arab Emirates vs Kuwait on August 21 at 7:30 PM IST/06:00 PM local; UAE Vs KWT Scorecard
Match 3: United Arab Emirates vs Singapore on August 22 at 7:30 PM IST/06:00 PM local; UAE Vs SGP Live Score
Match 4: Kuwait vs Hong Kong on August 23 at 7:30 PM IST/06:00 PM local; KWT Vs HKG Live Score
Match 5: Singapore vs Kuwait on August 24 at 5:30 PM IST/4:00 PM IST; SGP Vs KWT Live Score
Match 6: Hong Kong vs United Arab Emirates on August 24 at 9:30 PM/8:00 PM local; HKG Vs UE Live Score
Squads
Hong Kong: Nizakat Khan (c), Kinchit Shah (vc), Aizaz Khan, Zeeshan Ali, Yasim Murtaza, Haroon Arshad, Ehsan Khan, Ghazanfar Mohammad, Ayush Shukla, Babar Hayat, Aftab Hussain, Scott McKechnie, Ahan Trivedi, Wajid Shah, Waheed Mohammad, Dhananjay Rao, Ateeq Iqbal.
Kuwait: Mohammed Aslam (c), Nawaf Ahmed, Mohammad Amin, Meet Bhavsar (wk), Adnan Idrees, Muhammad Kashif, Shiraz Khan, Sayed Monib, Usman Patel, Yasin Patel, Shahrukh Quddus, Ravija Sandaruwan, Mohamed Shafeeq, Haroon Shahid, Edson Silva, Bilal Tahir, Ali Zaheer.
Singapore: TBD
UAE: Chundangapoyil Rizwan (c), Sultan Ahmed, Sabir Ali, Vriitya Aravind, Kashif Daud, Zawar Farid, Basil Hameed, Zahoor Khan, Aryan Lakra, Karthik Meiyappan, Rohan Mustafa, Fahad Nawaz, Ahmed Raza, Alishan Sharafu, Junaid Siddique, Chirag Suri, Muhammad Waseem.
