Former legendary Indian spinner Ravichandran Ashwin made some bold statements on the ongoing Asia Cup 2025 campaign, stating the tournament lackscompetition. As India is all set to take on UAE on September 10, Wednesday, at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium, Ashwin, speaking on his YouTube channel, stated that the standard of the tournament is so bad that it can't even stand out as a practice one for the T20 World Cup 2026, which is set to be played in India next year.
Speaking on his YouTube channel, Ashwin stated,
"They can almost include South Africa and make it an Afro-Asia Cup to make the tournament competitive. As it is now, they should probably include an India A side for it to be some contest. We've not even spoken about Bangladesh. Because there is nothing to talk about with them. How are these teams going to even compete against India?"
The Asia Cup 2025 started with a bang with the first clash played between Afghanistan and Hong Kong, which Afghanistan won by a big margin of 94 runs. Hong Kong failed to chase the score of 189 runs and was bowled out for 94/9 in 20 overs.
Despite Afghanistan's incredible win in the opener game, Ashwin feels that Rashid Khan's team is no match for India.
He said,
"This is not some curtain raiser for the 2026 T20 World Cup; it's only a curtain. This tournament isn't some major yardstick for it. Even against the so-called threat of the Afghanistan bowlers, if India bats well and scores 170+, who will Afghanistan chase this down with? It's nearly impossible."
"The only way to defeat India is by somehow restricting them to 155 on a good day and then chasing it down. Normally a T20 is thrilling, but India will likely make even that one-sided in this Asia Cup."