Reports: Sri Lanka to host the 15th edition of the Asia Cup in September 2022

The 15th edition of the Asia Cup will take place in Sri Lanka in September next year. According to media reports, the tournament will take place in the island nation in the month of September in 2022.

Veteran Geo News journalist Arfa Feroz Zake took to his official Twitter account on Friday (October 15) to confirm the development. He wrote:

"🇱🇰🏏 Sri Lanka will host the fifteenth edition of Asia Cup in September 2022 in T20 format. This tournament was earlier to be hosted by Pakistan Cricket Board who exchanged hosting rights with SLC."

Since its inception, the Asia Cup was played in a 50-over format. However, since 2016, the format of the tournament has depended on the nature of the nearest ICC event. The last edition was a 50-over event due to the proximity of the 2019 World Cup.

Since the eighth edition of the T20 World Cup is set to take place in Australia in October-November 2022, the latest edition of the Asia Cup will also be played in the same format.

Can Team India make it a hat-trick of Asia Cup titles next year?

India have won the past two editions of the Asia Cup [Image- Getty].

The 15th edition of the marquee tournament was originally scheduled to take place in Pakistan in 2020.

However, the championship was eventually postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. To host the 2022 edition, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) struck a deal with their Sri Lankan counterparts and exchanged hosting rights.

The abandoned 2020 edition was set to take place in Sri Lanka earlier this summer but was eventually called off due to India qualifying for the World Test Championship final.

It has now been confirmed that Sri Lanka will host the upcoming edition as opposed to the designated hosts in Pakistan.

This will be the first time since 2010 that Sri Lanka will host the tournament. The past four editions have been hosted by Bangladesh (2012, 2014 & 2016) and the United Arab Emirates (2018).

India have won the past two editions of the tournament, including the T20 version of the event, which took place for the first time in 2016. While India have won the tournament on a record seven occasions, Sri Lanka are second with five titles followed by Pakistan with two championship wins.