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    4 interesting coincidences between Asia Cup 2018 and Asia Cup 2022

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    Asia Cup

    Asia Cup is the biggest cricket tournament organised by the Asian Cricket Council (ACC) for the teams in the Asian continent. It happens once every two or four years. Initially, the tournament was played only in the ODI format, but now, the organisers have also introduced a T20I format in the competition.

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    The most recent edition of the tournament is underway in the United Arab Emirates right now. The previous edition was in 2018, where India won the title. While the ongoing tournament is yet to complete, here’s a look at some similarities between the two tournaments of 2018 and 2022.

    1. Different country was named host, later changed to UAE

    In 2018, India was supposed to host the Asia Cup event. However, due to the political tensions between India and Pakistan, the tournament was later shifted to the UAE. This year, Sri Lanka was named the host, but due to the financial situation of the country, the competition was moved to UAE.

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    2. Groups are same in Asia Cup 2018 and 2022

    Six teams have been divided into two groups in both tournaments. In 2018, one group comprised Sri Lanka, Afghanistan and Bangladesh, and the other featured India, Pakistan and Hong Kong. The same is the case in 2022 also.

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    3. Rohit Sharma leading India in Asia Cup

    In 2018, Virat Kohli was the full-time captain of the Indian team, but he missed the Asian tournament. In his absence, Rohit Sharma led the squad. This year, Sharma is the full-time skipper of the Men in Blue.

    4. Sri Lanka suffered first loss against Afghanistan in white-ball cricket history

    Prior to 2018, Afghanistan had never defeated Sri Lanka in an ODI match. That streak ended when Afghanistan beat the islanders by 91 runs in their first game of Asia Cup. Four years later, Afghanistan won their first ever T20I match against Sri Lanka in the tournament’s opener by crushing them by eight wickets at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium.