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2018 Asia Cup

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2018 Asia Cup

The 2018 Asia Cup (also known as Unimoni Asia Cup for sponsorship reasons) was a One-Day International (ODI) cricket tournament that was held in the United Arab Emirates in September 2018. It was the 14th edition of the Asia Cup and the third time the tournament was played in the United Arab Emirates, after the 1984 and 1995 tournaments. India were the defending champions, and retained their title, after beating Bangladesh by three wickets in the final.

The five full members of the Asian Cricket Council took part in the tournament: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. They were joined by Hong Kong, who won the 2018 Asia Cup Qualifier tournament. Hong Kong had lost their ODI status after finishing tenth in the 2018 Cricket World Cup Qualifier in March. However, on 9 September 2018, the International Cricket Council (ICC) awarded ODI status to all matches in the tournament.

Originally, the tournament was scheduled to be played in India. It was moved to the United Arab Emirates, following ongoing political tensions between India and Pakistan.

On 29 October 2015, following the Asian Cricket Council (ACC) meeting in Singapore, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) secretary stated that the 2018 edition of the tournament would be held in India. In August 2017, the BCCI sought government clearance to host the tournament, after the 2017 ACC Under-19 Asia Cup was moved to Malaysia. In April 2018, Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, asked if the BCCI and ACC would consider hosting the tournament in Abu Dhabi, in a bid to ensure Pakistan's participation.

Pakistan were scheduled to host the 2018 ACC Emerging Teams Asia Cup ahead of the tournament in April. With the announcement that the Asia Cup would be played in the United Arab Emirates, the Emerging Teams Asia Cup was moved to December 2018, with Sri Lanka co-hosting the tournament with Pakistan.

The schedule and format of the tournament was announced on 24 July 2018, with the six teams split into two groups of three. The top two teams from each of the groups progressed to the Super Four section of the tournament. From there, the top two teams of the Super Four section played each other in the final. Initially, the team that finishes second in Group A were scheduled to play their first Super Four game in Abu Dhabi. However, India would be based in Dubai, irrespective of where they finish in the pool. On 19 September 2018, the Asian Cricket Council (ACC) revised the schedule for the Super Four section The captains of Bangladesh and Pakistan were both critical of the ACC's new schedule.

Before the start of the tournament, Wafadar Momand was ruled out of Afghanistan's squad due to injury and was replaced by Yamin Ahmadzai, and Mominul Haque was added to Bangladesh's squad. Dinesh Chandimal and Danushka Gunathilaka were ruled out of Sri Lanka's squad due to injury. They were replaced by Niroshan Dickwella and Shehan Jayasuriya respectively. Bangladesh's Tamim Iqbal suffered a wrist injury in the opening match and was ruled out of the rest of the tournament.

After the conclusion of the India-Pakistan match in the group stage, Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, and Shardul Thakur were all ruled out of India's squad for the rest of the tournament due to injuries. They were replaced by Ravindra Jadeja, Deepak Chahar, and Siddarth Kaul. At the Super Four stage of the tournament, Soumya Sarkar and Imrul Kayes were added to Bangladesh's squad. Shakib Al Hasan was ruled out of Bangladesh's final Super Four match, and the rest of the tournament, due to an injury he initially sustained in January 2018, during the final of the Bangladesh Tri-Nation Series.

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