The Asia Cup is set to return to India after 34 years in 2025, with the country hosting the T20 edition of the tournament as a precursor to the T20 World Cup scheduled for 2026. This announcement was made by the Asian Cricket Council (ACC) in its Invitation for Expression of Interest (IEOI).
The 2027 Asia Cup will be hosted by Bangladesh and played in the 50-over format, in line with the ODI World Cup scheduled to take place in South Africa that year.
Since 2016, when the tournament was first held as a T20 event, the Asia Cup has been used as a dress rehearsal for global events, adopting the format of the upcoming World Cup.
The 2023 edition, hosted by the Pakistan, was conducted in a ‘hybrid model’ due to India’s refusal to travel to Pakistan. As a result, India’s matches were played in Sri Lanka.
India are the defending Asia Cup champions, and have won three of the last four editions of the tournament. They beat Sri Lanka by 10 wickets in the final of last year’s 50-overs edition in Colombo.