Asia Cup: 'It's only a curtain' — Ashwin slams lack of competition against India

NEW DELHI: Former Indian off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin has delivered a scathing assessment of the ongoing Asia Cup 2025, questioning whether the tournament offers any real challenge to Team India.

The eight-nation event began on Tuesday in Abu Dhabi with Afghanistan facing Hong Kong, but Ashwin believes the format lacks competitiveness.Go Beyond The Boundary with our YouTube channel. SUBSCRIBE NOW!Speaking on his YouTube channel, Ashwin quipped: “They can almost include a South Africa and make it an Afro-Asia Cup to make the tournament competitive. As it is now, they should probably include an India A side for it to be some contest. We’ve not even spoken about Bangladesh. Because there is nothing to talk about with them. How are these teams going to even compete against India?”Team India enters the Asia Cup as firm favourites, having won 17 of their last 20 T20Is, since the 2024 T20 World Cup triumph.

Ashwin admitted he hopes for a surprise winner purely to inject excitement into the regional competition. “In a way, I really hope someone else wins the tournament. Because only then will there be a contest in Asia. None of these teams pick Kuldeep or Varun. And we’ve not even spoken about India’s powerful batting line-up, which has match-winners galore.

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The 38-year-old also brushed aside suggestions that the Asia Cup could act as a build-up to the 2026 T20 World Cup in India and Sri Lanka.

“This is not some curtain raiser for the 2026 T20 World Cup, it’s only a curtain. This tournament isn’t some major yardstick for it. Even against the so-called threat of the Afghanistan bowlers, if India bat well and score 170+, who will Afghanistan chase this down with? It’s nearly impossible.

”Ashwin summed up the challenge for rivals bluntly: “The only way to defeat India is by somehow restricting them to 155 on a good day, and then chase it down. Normally a T20 is thrilling but India will likely make even that one-sided in this Asia Cup.”India begin their campaign against the UAE in Dubai on Wednesday.