How Team India fared in the inaugural ‘T20 Asia Cup’ under MS Dhoni’s captaincy
How Team India fared in the inaugural ‘T20 Asia Cup’ under MS Dhoni’s captaincy: The Indian team has an aim to retain the Asia Cup trophy. The team wants to ink on the players for the 2022 T20 World Cup. With this thought, India will be entering the Asia Cup. The Asia Cup is set to be played from August 27 to September 11, 2022. Rohit Sharma will be leading the Indian national cricket team in Asia Cup as the full-time captain for the first time. In 2018, he served as the captain of a title win in the absence of Virat Kohli.
Like 2016, the tournament is set to be played in a T20 format. There is The ICC t20 World Cup lined up to be played in October-November. There has been only one T20 Asia Cup so far and India bagged the title in that edition.
It is time to take a look at how India fared in the T20 Asia Cup under the captaincy of MS Dhoni.
The MS Dhoni-led team started its campaign with a 45-run win over hosts Bangladesh. Rohit Sharma scored 83 off 55 deliveries. Hardik Pandya smashed 31 runs off 18 balls. The Indian team registered a total of 166. Riding on Ashish Nehra’s three-wicket-haul, India restricted Bangladesh to a total of 121.
An easy win over Pakistan
Hardik Pandya and Ravindra Jadeja came together to skittle Pakistan for a total of 83. The Indian team struggled against Mohammed Amir’s early spell. The team was left reeling at 8/3 at one stage. But there was no looking back when Virat Kohli came into the picture. He was dismissed after putting India on the brink of a win. The Indian team’s vice-captain scored 49 runs off 51 balls in a low-scoring fixture.
Kohli is responsible for India to obtain another win
Kohli was at the peak of his form in 2016. In the league stage match against Sri Lanka, Kohli remained undefeated with 56 runs off 47 balls. India chased down the target of 139 runs in the last over. Yuvraj Singh performed well and scored a vital 35 runs off 18 deliveries.
9-wicket win over the United Arab Emirates
India chased down the target of 82 runs in a match with the United Arab Emirates with 9 wickets and 9.5 overs to spare. The Indian cricket team entered the final with a 4-0 record in the league stage.
Clinching the Asia Cup after 6 years
The Indian team broke the hearts of the Bangladesh fans. He chased down 121 runs in only 13.5 overs in the final. Shikhar Dhawan made 60 runs and Virat Kohli made 41 runs. Their contribution played their part in the win. But it was MS Dhoni who stole the show by smashing 20 runs off just 6 deliveries. Captain Cool performed with a strike rate of 333.33 and hit 2 sixes and a boundary.