Dubai: Team India’s fate in the Asia Cup is no longer in their hands.
Following their second defeat in as many matches in the Super 4 stage, Rohit Sharma’s men have been pushed to a corner from where their chances of making Sunday’s final look extremely remote.
To have an outside chance of trying to defend the Asia Cup title, two results have to favour Team India. First, Afghanistan will have to beat Pakistan on Wednesday night. Pakistan also need to lose to Sri Lanka, on September 9.
And, of course, India must beat Afghanistan by a big margin on September 8.
In such a scenario, Sri Lanka will go through to the final with an all-win record, while there will be a three-way tie among India, Pakistan and Afghanistan for the second finalist. Net run-rate (NRR) will decide the issue, and India in that case stand a fair chance of pipping Pakistan and Afghanistan.
The men in blue will, thus be rooting for Rashid Khan & Co. as they face off against Babar Azam’s green brigade at Sharjah later in the evening.
On Tuesday night, a resurgent Sri Lanka beat India by 6 wickets with a ball to spare in Dubai. India had gone down to Pakistan earlier, while Lanka had tamed Afghanistan.
