India won the previous edition of the Women’s Asia Cup   

By M. Shamil Amit 

The Asian Cricket Council have drawn up plans to conduct the Women’s Asia Cup where eight teams will vie for supremacy scheduled to be played from July 19 to 28 with Sri Lanka as the host and the matches scheduled to be worked off at the Rangiri Dambulla Stadium.   

The tournament will usher with the first match on July 19 between Nepal Women and UAE Women in the afternoon session followed by the clash between traditional rivals India Women who are the defending champions and Pakistan Women slotted to be played in the evening session on the same day.   

There is a change to the format of the tournament, instead of the teams playing against each other before qualifying to the semi final, this time out the eight teams have been divided into two groups of four teams in each. Group A comprises defending champions India, Pakistan, Nepal and UAE while host Sri Lanka along with Bangladesh, Malaysia and Thailand are in Group B.   

The top teams in the two groups will fight it out in the semifinals. In the previous tournament India Women coasted to a comfortable eight wicket win over Sri Lanka Women in the final.

The tournament no doubt is going to be a good rehearsal in preparation for the teams that will be participating in the forthcoming Women’s T20 World Cup scheduled to be held in Bangladesh in October this year.   

Host Sri Lanka will play their first match against Bangladesh on July 20 followed by matches against Malaysia and Thailand.