Asia Cup 2025: Can Wounded Afghanistan, Led by Rashid Khan, Dominate Hong Kong? OR Rashid Khan's Afghanistan Seek Redemption Against Hong Kong in Asia Cup Opener OR Asia Cup: Will Afghanistan Overcome Recent Setbacks Against Hong Kong?

Rashid Khan's Afghanistan are wounded. Despite being dubbed as the second-best Asian T20I team, the Afghan side come into the Asia Cup after being hammered by Pakistan in the final of the tri-series. The wounds will be fresh when Afghanistan, the semi-finalists in the T20 World Cup 2024, play their opener of the continental tournament on Tuesday, in Abu Dhabi, against Hong Kong.

Afghanistan crashed and burned against Pakistan, getting bowled out for just 66 runs in the final of the tri-series. Despite putting in a good bowling performance and restricting Pakistan to 141 runs in Sharjah, Afghanistan failed to turn up with the bat, losing the match by a massive margin of 75 runs.

Afghanistan's outings with the bat have been poor throughout the last year. Since the T20 World Cup 2024, Afghanistan have crossed the 180-run total only once in 8 matches. That is a concern that they would really like to fix before the T20 World Cup 2026.

AFG vs PAK, tri-series final: Match Report

On paper, Afghanistan and Hong Kong should be a straightforward contest, but do not make the mistake of counting anyone out, especially in the T20I format, where the error margins run very thin.

Hong Kong have come into the tournament after beating Nepal in the ACC Men’s Premier Cup 2024. The team has played 16 T20Is this year but is yet to face a team of Afghanistan's quality.

Hong Kong have a tough task at hand in Group B, where they take on Sri Lanka and Bangladesh apart from Afghanistan. In a tournament that is expected to favour spin bowling, these three teams are perhaps the worst match-ups that you can get.

Anshuman Rath's Redemption Run

Hong Kong opener Anshuman Rath, who earlier played for Odisha, will be at the forefront of the attack for the team. Rath recently spoke to ESPNcricinfo in detail about how he left India under difficult circumstances. The batter would be eager to prove his worth against the big teams in Asia in this tournament.

"I'm someone who enjoys cricket because of the camaraderie, the team environment. In Odisha, I just wasn't feeling it," Rath told ESPNcricinfo ahead of the tournament.

"I remember once being made fun of for eating rice and dal with a spoon," he recalled. "It sounds silly, but when you have no one to talk to, no support system, those things hit you hard. No matter what level you play, if you're not enjoying it or you're not in the right frame of mind you're wasting your time.

"So I called my dad, literally almost in tears being like, 'what am I doing here? I just don't want to do it.' I had played two years of it, but didn't have anything more to give."

The batter left for Hong Kong after failing to break into the national set-up. Since then, he has featured for the Hong Kong side.

This is Hong Kong's fifth appearance in the Asia Cup. The team's captain Yasim Murtaza spoke in the captain's press conference and said that they were looking to put up some strong performances.

Afghanistan vs Hong Kong: Pitch Report

Abu Dhabi is the pitch that generally offers less spin than Dubai. It needs to be mentioned that with the start time delayed by half an hour, the spinners might get very little help in the first innings as well.

Afghanistan vs Hong Kong: Match Details

Afghanistan and Hong Kong will play at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi. The match will start at 8 pm IST.

Afghanistan vs Hong Kong: Livestreaming

The tournament will be livestreamed on the SonyLiv app. The matches will also be broadcast on Sony Sports Network.

Afghanistan vs Hong Kong: Probable Playing XIs

Afghanistan Probable Playing XI

Rahmanullah Gurbaz (wk), Ibrahim Zadran, Sediqullah Atal, Darwish Rasooli, Karim Janat, Azmatullah Omarzai, Rashid Khan (c), Mohammad Nabi, AM Ghazanfar, Noor Ahmad, Fazalhaq Farooqi

Hong Kong Probable Playing XI

Anshuman Rath, Zeeshan Ali (wk), Babar Hayat, Nizakat Khan, Matthew Coetzee, Yasim Murtaza (c), Ehsan Khan, Aizaz Khan, Ateeq Iqbal, Nasrulla Rana, Ayush Shukla

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