Hong Kong has qualified for the Asia Cup 2022 and will join India and Pakistan in Group A. They beat the UAE in the final qualifier by eight wickets.
Hong Kong joined Group-A alongside Pakistan and India. They have won all three matches in qualifiers and topped the table.
Hong Kong has qualified for Main Round
Hong Kong won the toss and opted to field first against UAE in the final qualifying stage in Oman. They successfully restricted UAE to 147 runs. UAE couldn’t play its whole quota of 20 overs and set up 147 runs as a target. Hong Kong began their innings with a game plan in mind, and they were able to successfully chase down the score with one over to spare.
Veteran player Ehsan Khan remained the standout of the game as he scalped four wickets by surrendering 24 runs. He was named “Player of the Match” for his outstanding bowling effort.
Notably, Hong Kong maintained undefeated throughout the tournament to join the top five teams in the Asia Cup 2022. In the first match, Hong Kong vanquished Singapore and demolished Kuwait in the second game. While in the third, United Arab Emirates became Hong Kong’s third objective.
Hong Kong’s skipper praised the Board
Following the match, Nizakat Khan, Hong Kong skipper praised the cricket board for all the support they offered.
“I have no words to describe how I feel. I would like to thank Hong Cricket for all their support,” said Nizakat Khan. “Our process was the same, we knew we had to win all three games to qualify for Asia Cup and that is what we did. We took it game by game and the boys fought back really well. This is a big tournament to showcase our talent, and this is a great opportunity for everyone on this squad.”
Now the two groups looks like this;
| Group A | Group B |
| India | Bangladesh |
| Pakistan | Sri Lanka |
| Hong Kong | Afghanistan |
Asia Cup Championship 2022 Schedule
Take a look at the squads for Asia Cup 2022 below
India Squad: Rohit Sharma (c), KL Rahul, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant, Deepak Hooda, Dinesh Karthik, Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, R Ashwin, Yuzvendra Chahal, Ravi Bishnoi, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Arshdeep Singh, Avesh Khan
Standby: Shreyas Iyer, Axar Patel, Deepak Chahar
Pakistan Squad: Babar Azam (c), Shadab Khan, Asif Ali, Fakhar Zaman, Haider Ali, Haris Rauf, Iftikhar Ahmed, Khushdil Shah, Mohammad Nawaz, Mohammad Rizwan, Mohammad Wasim Jnr, Naseem Shah, Shahnawaz Dahani, Usman Qadir, Mohammad Hasnain
Also, read about Ricky Ponting’s prediction about India vs Pakistan match at Asia Cup
Hong Kong: Nizakat Khan (c), Kinchit Shah, Zeeshan Ali, Haroon Arshad, Babar Hayat, Aftab Hussain, Ateeq Iqbal, Aizaz Khan, Ehsan Khan, Scott McKechnie (wk), Ghazanfar Mohammad, Yasim Murtaza, Dhananjay Rao, Wajid Shah, Ayush Shukla, Ahan Trivedi, Mohammad Waheed
Group B
Bangladesh’s Squad: Shakib Al Hasan (c), Anamul Haque, Mushfiqur Rahim, Afif Hossain, Mosaddek Hossain, Mahmudullah, Mahedi Hasan, Mohammad Saifuddin, Mustafizur Rahman, Nasum Ahmed, Sabbir Rahman, Mehidy Hasan Miraz, Taskin Ahmed, Ebadot Hossain, Parvez Hossain Emon, Mohammad Naim
Srilanka’s Squad: Dasun Shanaka (c), Danushka Gunathilaka, Pathum Nissanka, Kusal Mendis, Charith Asalanka, Bhanuka Rajapaksa, Ashen Bandara, Dhananjaya de Silva, Wanindu Hasaranga, Maheesh Theekshana, Jeffrey Vandersay, Praveen Jayawickrama, Chamika Karunaratne, Dilshan Madushanka, Matheesha Pathirana, Nuwanidu Fernando, Nuwan Thusara, Dinesh Chandimal
Afghanistan Squad: Mohammad Nabi (c), Najibullah Zadran, Afsar Zazai, Azmatullah Omarzai, Farid Ahmad Malik, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Hashmatullah Shahidi, Hazratullah Zazai, Ibrahim Zadran, Karim Janat, Mujeeb ur Rahman, Najibullah Zadran, Naveen ul Haq, Noor Ahmad, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Rashid Khan, Samiullah Shinwari
On standby: Nijat Masood, Qais Ahmed, Sharafuddin Ashraf
Source: ICC
