it is heartening that after a long and intensive preparation period the inviting Women’s Asia Cup is scheduled to start with an exciting India-Pakistan showdown on Friday. India begins the preparations for the upcoming T20 World Cup as the defender and the eight participating teams will try to fine-tune their preparations.
India stands tall with 17 wins in 20 matches of the Women Asia Cup T20, which is why they are favourites for this match. Still, the Pakistan cricket team has played a tournament only three times in the T20 format, and they have won it three times while they had played four times in the 50-over games and were triumphant four times also. India also leads Pak in the T20Is by 11-3, while, as an overall comparison in all the three formats ODIs, T20Is, and Tests, India has the upper hand on Pakistan.
Still, India would come into the game following a 1-1 draw with South Africa and Pakistan, who have not played much cricket and confidence following their 3-0 series defeat in England in May. The home side, though they have the batting talent of Smriti Mandhana, the bowlers have also impressed for India.
Besides the India and Pakistan match, the Group A match between Nepal and UAE will be another keenly contested battle as Nepal is coming back to the competition after a want of four years. This double round-robin is concluded when only a match between the top two teams of Group A is needed in the knockout stage.
