Asia Cup 2025: India-Pakistan Set for Three High-Stakes Clashes in Neutral Venue

Pakistan will soon get a chance to take revenge for their loss to India in the 2025 Champions Trophy. That defeat in Dubai knocked them out of their home tournament. Now, the Asian Cricket Council (ACC) is planning to hold the 2025 Asia Cup in September. Since the T20 World Cup is coming up in 2026, the Asia Cup will be played in the T20 format to help teams prepare.

According to Cricbuzz, fans might get to see up to three India-Pakistan matches this year. The Asia Cup is likely to take place from mid to late September.

The 17th edition of the tournament, which includes 19 matches, was originally supposed to take place in India. However, due to the political situation between India and Pakistan, the ACC is considering a neutral venue. While the final decision is yet to be made, Sri Lanka and the UAE are being considered as possible options. Despite this, the BCCI will still be the official host.

According to a document obtained by Cricbuzz, the ACC has decided to avoid the kind of controversy that surrounded the Champions Trophy in the months before the tournament, particularly regarding India and Pakistan.

Since the Indian government didn’t clear BCCI’s request, Rohit Sharma and his team couldn’t travel to Pakistan for the Champions Trophy. After months of discussion, Dubai was chosen as the venue for all of India’s matches. To prevent a similar issue from happening again, the Asian Cricket Council (ACC) is now looking to host all 19 games of the Asia Cup at a neutral venue from the start.

The tournament will feature eight teams: Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, UAE, Oman, Hong Kong, India, and Pakistan. Nepal, which played in the 2023 edition, won’t be participating this time as they didn’t qualify. The teams will be split into two groups, with the top two from each group moving on to the Super Four stage. From there, the best two will compete in the final. India are the defending champions, having defeated Sri Lanka in the 2023 final.

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