Follow UsThe Asia Cup 2025 is supposed to be the curtain-raiser for the T20 World Cup 2026. However, former India spinner Ravichandran Ashwin doesn’t think that. He even called the tournament as very weak and just a curtain, not a curtain raiser.
“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,” Hindustan Times quoted Ashwin as saying on his YouTube channel.
Ashwin thinks the tournament is so lacking in competition that an India A squad could be included in it and so could teams like South Africa and make it an Afro-Asia Cup.
“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,” he said.
“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?” he asked further.
The only team he thought was worth competing against India was Afghanistan. But with their batting, Ashwin found a fault.
“Even against the so-called threat of the Afghanistan bowlers, if India bat well and score 170+, who will Afghanistan chase this down with? It’s nearly impossible,” he said.
Finally, the man, who won his maiden Asia Cup in 2010, which was also his maiden appearance in the competition, hoped that some other team than India would win it.
“In a way, I really hope someone else wins the tournament. Because only then will there be a contest in Asia,” he said.
Apart from India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Afghanistan qualified directly for the tournament. Oman, Hong Kong and UAE made it to the tournament through a qualifier.