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With the Asian Cricket Council (ACC) earlier in July confirming that India will host the 2025 edition of the Men’s Asia Cup, several reports are now making rounds regarding the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) opting to host the tournament out of India. However, none of the BCCI officials have opened up on this development, it comes ahead of India’s Test series against Bangladesh, starting from September 19.
In July 2024, the ACC released an Invitation for Expressions of Interests (IEOI) document, just a day after the Women’s Asia Cup 2024 finale. While the document invited interested parties to submit their IEOI for ACC Sponsorship Rights for the period from 2024 to 2027, it also confirmed that India will serve as the host in 2025, while Bangladesh will host the tournament in 2027.
Although the continental tournament was set to return to India after a gap of 34 years, but if recent reports are to be believed, the wait will just get longer for the Men in Blue to serve as the hosts of the tournament.
Asia Cup 2027 to be played in Bangladesh in ODI format
While the 2025 edition of the tournament will be played in the shortest format of the game, the 2027 edition, which is awarded to Bangladesh, is scheduled to be played in the 50-over format. Furthermore, it is to be noted that both editions will include six teams, namely India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Afghanistan and a sixth team, which will be one non-Test playing Member of ACC selected through qualifying events.
India are the defending champions of the Asia Cup and won three of the last four editions. In 2023, which saw the tournament being played in a Hybrid model, saw India play all their matches in Sri Lanka. In the finale, they defeated the Lankans by 10 wickets in Colombo, getting their hands on the title for the eighth time.
