The Asia Cup 2025 cricket tournament is scheduled to take place in the United Arab Emirates from September 9 to 28. The eight-team tournament will consist of two groups, each comprising four teams. India, Pakistan, hosts UAE, and Oman are placed together in Group A. Group B is considered the group of death with three big sub-continental teams, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Afghanistan featuring in it alongside Hong Kong.
Former India cricketer Aakash Chopra believes Bangladesh will end their 2025 Asia Cup campaign after the group stage, as he went with Sri Lanka and Afghanistan as his picks to qualify for Super 4s from Group B.
“If we talk about opportunity, they have nothing to lose and the entire world to gain because they haven’t been doing well in multi-nation tournaments for a long time,” Chopra said on his YouTube Channel.
“They used to punch above their weight. They knocked us out in 2007. They are participants in world tournaments, but are not going into them as contenders, and this is what they want to do now. So the opportunities are endless, but to say the truth, their job is cut out, even though it would be wrong to rule out any team in T20s. I feel they will get stuck. Afghanistan and Sri Lanka might actually qualify from that group. So Bangladesh’s story might end in the league stage,” he added.
Choking tendency
Chopra feels Bangladesh’s over-dependence on their skipper Litton Das in T20I cricket is their primary weakness. He also said Bangladesh tend to choke in big moments. “In weakness, they have an overdependence on Litton Das. Litton Das is a quality player, but he is an underachiever. He hasn’t done as well as the ability he has. He is the captain at the moment, so the team will definitely look towards him, but they look towards him too much. They have a tendency of choking in big moments,” said Chopra.
“If we look at it in 2025, they have very few batters whose strike rates are close to 150. You see just one or two above 140. They are not a team that is looking for 210-220. They are a team that is very comfortable with a 160-180 total. If the opposing team decides to hit a lot, they might not have any answers,” he added.
