Asia Cup 2025: Bruised Hong Kong brace for more mauling by The Tigers

No one realistically expected Hong Kong to beat Afghanistan, despite the latter’s travails against Pakistan in the recent tri-series final. And they didn’t, losing by a whopping 94 runs to the Rashid Khan-led side in the Asia Cup opener. Truth be told, not many would bet on them against Bangladesh either in their second match in Abu Dhabi today, given The Tigers have made it to the finals in three previous editions. In a ‘Group of Death’ that also features Sri Lanka, Hong Kong risk ending up as the whipping boys, as the other three teams fight it out for the top-two spots that would guarantee a place in the Super Fours.

Here is some trivia going into the match…

The lone warrior for Hong Kong against Afghanistan was veteran Babar Hayat, who top-scored with 39 off 43 balls with three sixes in a team total of 94/9. He stood firm while wickets fell at regular intervals at the other end and so couldn't quite break free as a result. An attractive batter who is tasked to hold the top-order together, Hong Kong will hope that Hayat continues to fire. Incidentally, Hayat and Nizakat Khan are the only survivors from Hong Kong's famous two-wicket win against Bangladesh in the T20 World Cup in 2014. So, he does know a thing or two about how to win against today’s opponents.

Since 2012, Bangladesh have made it to three Asia Cup finals, the first in their home tournament that year when they beat India and Sri Lanka in the 50-over edition before going down to Pakistan by just two runs. They followed it up in the T20 edition at home in 2016 and then reached the final of the 50-over edition in the UAE in 2018, losing to India on both occasions. They come into this tournament with three consecutive T20 series wins – against Sri Lanka, Pakistan and the Netherlands ‑ and under Litton Das, have become quite a formidable unit.

One of the reasons for Bangladesh’s recent success is that their openers Tanzid Hasan and Parvez Hossain Emon have been firing on all cylinders in the powerplay. The duo has struck the most sixes for Bangladesh this year ‑ 23 and 22, respectively ‑ giving The Tigers a flying start more often than not. In fact, according to statistics from ESPNcricinfo, between 2006 and 2023, Bangladesh had averaged 3.81 sixes per T20I innings (the lowest among Full Member nations); in 2024, it rose to 5.08, and improved further to 7.73 in 2025. They hit 238 sixes in T20Is in 2024 and 2025, compared to only 130 in 2022 and 2023. Besides Tanzid and Parvez, middle-order batters Jaker Ali and Shamim Hossain have also joined the party and have been clearing the ropes at will.

Expect a few crowd catches in Abu Dhabi today.