Asia Cup set to be postponed due to COVID-19

The Asia Cup 2021, which was planned to be held in Sri Lanka this year, is likely to be postponed.

All Major Asian sides have packed schedules until the end of this year however the major reason for the likely postponement is due to the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Both Indian Premier League (IPL) and the Pakistan Super League (PSL) got postponed due to COVID-19 breaching the bio-bubbles of teams of both the tournaments.

The IPL and the PSL have both been rescheduled for later this year, with an exact window still not confirmed due to a packed international schedule, which also includes the T20 World Cup.

Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) is also planning to play the Lanka Premier league (LPL) in August, while Bangladesh’s BPL is also set for later in the year.

With all these tournaments and an already packed international schedule until the end of this year, it is highly unlikely that the Asia Cup 2021 will go ahead.

This year’s tournament would have been a T20 Tournament, with teams having originally hoped it would be good preparation for the T20 World Cup which is scheduled to be held in October in India.

The last Asia cup was last held in 2018. The planned 2020 edition of the tournament was postponed due to the COVID-19 Pandemic.

The most likely scenario now is that two back-to-back Asia cup Tournaments will be played in 2022 and 2023.

“We have kept four standbys with the 15-man squad. They will stay with the team. It is a contingency for Covid-19 situation.” he added.

The first ODI between hosts Bangladesh and Sri Lanka will take place on May 23 but before that, the 19-men contingent will play a warm-up game on Thursday in Bangladesh Krira Shikkha Protishtan.

Bangladesh squad for the ODI series against Sri Lanka:

Tamim Iqbal (C), Shakib Al Hasan, Mushfiqur Rahim, Mohammad Mithun, Mahmudullah, Afif Hossain, Mehidy Hasan Miraz, Mohammad Saifuddin, Taskin Ahmed, Liton Das, Mustafizur Rahman, Soumya Sarkar, Mosaddek Hossain, Mahedi Hasan, Shoriful Islam

Standbys: Mohammad Naim, Taijul Islam, Shohidul Islam, Aminul Islam Biplob