India and Pakistan will clash in the final of the ongoing Asia Cup tournament on Sunday in Dubai. This will be the third match between the two sides in the ongoing tournament, with India having won the previous two.
Clinical performances by Shaheen Shah Afridi, Haris Rauf and Saim Ayub powered Pakistan into the final, where they will face India for the first time in the history of the tournament across both ODI and T20I editions, following an 11-run victory over Bangladesh in their final Super Four clash on Thursday.
Here we take a look at the history of the two teams in the final:
When it comes to the Asia Cup, no other team has been more successful than India. The Men in Blue have won this series a record eight times, followed by Sri Lanka (six wins) and Pakistan (two wins).
India’s first win came in 1984 under the captaincy of the legendary Sunil Gavaskar, followed by 1988, 1990-91, 1995, 2010, 2016, 2018, and 2023.
Mohammad Azharuddin, MS Dhoni, and Rohit Sharma are the only captains to have won the tournament twice each.
India have lost three Asia Cup finals (1997, 2004, and 2008), all of them against Sri Lanka.
Pakistan have played five Asia Cup finals across both formats since the tournament’s inception, having managed to win two of them (in 2000 and 2012). These victories came under the captaincies of Moin Khan and Misbah-ul-Haq, respectively.
They were defeated in the final on three occasions – 1986, 2014, and 2022. All three of their final losses also came against Sri Lanka.
For India, it will be the responsibility of Yuvraj Singh’s prodigy Abhishek Sharma to lead the charge from the front. He is currently the highest scorer of the tournament, and its a no-brainer that if the 25-year-old manages to play a solid knock on Sunday, he will likely be adjudged the Player of the Tournament, which will be a tribute to his mentor, who was the player of the tournament when India won the 2011 ODI World Cup.
Kuldeep Yadav has been the best bowler of the tournament so far, having registered 12 sclaps. With 9 wickets in six matches, Shaheen Shah Afridi is their best bowler.
For Pakistan, Fakhar Zaman has been the best batter with a score of 135 across 6 innings.