Yesterday, the premier tournament of the Asian region, the Asia Cup, kicked off in the UAE. In the opening match of this year’s T20 edition, Afghanistan crushed Hong Kong by a massive margin of 94 runs. Today, in the second match, hosts UAE will take on India.
Before the on-field battle began in this year’s Asia Cup, former Indian cricket star Ravichandran Ashwin claimed that no team even comes close to India’s strength.
While openly discussing the Asia Cup, the former Indian off-spinner made a scathing remark about Bangladesh. In trying to highlight how big a team India is, he made several disparaging comments.
India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka have all won the Asia Cup multiple times. Bangladesh, on the other hand, have reached the final twice. Yet, Ashwin was unwilling to even count Bangladesh among the contenders.
He said: “We didn’t even talk about Bangladesh, because there’s nothing to talk about with them. How will such teams compete with India?”
Ashwin further added: “They could include South Africa here and turn it into an Afro-Asia Cup to increase competitiveness. In its current state, it would be better if India sent their ‘A’ team to make it at least somewhat competitive.”
The Indian star also said: “Even if we talk about Afghanistan’s so-called bowling threat, if India posts more than 170 runs, can they really chase that? It’s next to impossible.”
Ashwin concluded: “In a way, I hope some other team wins this tournament. That would at least bring back a bit of competitiveness to the Asia Cup.”
