AFG vs HK Live Cricket Score, 1st T20I Asia Cup 2025 Updates: The 2025 Asia Cup starts with Afghanistan facing Hong Kong at the Sheikh Zayed Cricket Stadium in Abu Dhabi. Afghanistan come into the tournament as a wounded lot, having lost to Pakistan in the tri-series final that they played before this tournament along with the UAE. They would be concerned by the fact that their batters looked pretty clueless against Pakistan’s spinners on the turning track in Sharjah. It resulted in them being all out for a paltry score of 66 while chasing 142.
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The fact remains, though that they are outright favourites to win this particular fixture. Hong Kong have played 16 T20Is this year but none against a side of the quality of Afghanistan or of the other two teams in Group B – Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. Hong Kong have been in the UAE for almost three weeks now, acclimatising themselves and playing warm-up games. However, now they are tasked with playing in a group where their first match is against last year’s T20 World Cup semi-finalists.
Afghanistan skipper Rashid Khan on Tuesday didn’t mince words while criticising the “not so ideal” scheduling and logistical arrangements of the Asia Cup where his team would be based in Dubai and travel nearly two hours to Abu Dhabi on its match days. “Well, I don’t think it’s ideal – that’s what we were discussing (with the other captains) before as well,” Rashid said during the mandatory captains’ press meet which also had Asian Cricket Council head and Pakistan Cricket Board chairman Mohsin Naqvi in attendance. “To play in Abu Dhabi and stay here in Dubai for all three games…it’s different. But as professional cricketers, we have to accept these things,” said the highest wicket-taker in T20I history.
Squads:
Hong Kong Squad: Zeeshan Ali(w), Babar Hayat, Nizakat Khan, Anshuman Rath, Martin Coetzee, Yasim Murtaza(c), Aizaz Khan, Nasrulla Rana, Ehsan Khan, Ali Hassan, Ateeq Iqbal, Kalhan Challu, Ayush Shukla, Kinchit Shah, Mohammad Waheed, Shahid Wasif, Mohammad Ghazanfar
Afghanistan Squad: Rahmanullah Gurbaz(w), Sediqullah Atal, Ibrahim Zadran, Darwish Rasooli, Azmatullah Omarzai, Mohammad Nabi, Karim Janat, Rashid Khan(c), Noor Ahmad, AM Ghazanfar, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Fareed Ahmad Malik, Naveen-ul-Haq, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Mohammad Ishaq, Sharafuddin Ashraf, Gulbadin Naib
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In the last three years, India have lost only one series, a close-fought rubber against the West Indies. In a three-year period of domination unseen in this format, they have won 11 series, apart from raising the World Cup. (Photo Credit: BCCI)
The hierarchy of the Asian cricket order is like the solar system. India is at the centre of the universe, shining invincibly and the rest revolving around it like distant planets, several light years away.
The universe was once different. In a not-too-distant past, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka were on equal groundings. Between them, they claimed three of the first five T20 World Cups. Twice they decided the finals between themselves. All three had flourishing global T20 leagues, only two have survived the test of times, and one has emerged as the undisputed marvel of the world’s cricketing glitterati.
