India will begin its Asia Cup title defence against archival Pakistan on August 28 at the Dubai International Stadium in Dubai. The Men in Blue have never lost an Asia Cup match played in the T20 format, having won all its five matches in the inaugural edition of the T20 tournament in 2016.
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India also emerged champion in the last edition of the Asia Cup, played in the traditional One-Day International (ODI) format in 2018. It was India’s sixth title in the 50-over format and seventh overall, making it the most successful team at the continental championship. Sri Lanka has five titles to its name while Pakistan has two.
INDIA AT THE ASIA CUP OVER THE YEARS
While India has won a record seven titles, it also has three runnner-up finishes and has lost to Sri Lanka in the final on all three occassions. The only time India did not participate in the event was in the 1986 edition, which was won by Sri Lanka. The Men in Blue endured a 15-year title drought - its longest in the history of the tournament - between 1995 and 2010. During this period, Sri Lanka won three titles while Pakistan clinched its maiden title in 2000.
| Year | Position | Most runs | Most wickets |
| 1984 | Winner | Surinder Khanna (107) | Ravi Shastri (4) |
| 1986 | Did Not Play | - | - |
| 1988 | Winner | Navjot Singh Sidhu (179) | Arshad Ayub (9) |
| 1990-91 | Winner | Navjot Singh Sidhu (144) | Kapil Dev (9) |
| 1995 | Winner | Sachin Tendulkar (205) | Anil Kumble (7) |
| 1997 | Runner-up | Mohammed Azharuddin (185) | Venkatesh Prasad (7) |
| 2000 | Third | Sourav Ganguly (156) | Ajit Agarkar (5) |
| 2004 | Runner-up | Sachin Tendulkar (281) | Irfan Pathan (14) |
| 2008 | Runner-up | Suresh Raina (372) | RP Singh (7) |
| 2010 | Winner | Gautam Gambhir (203) | Praveen Kumar (6) |
| 2012 | Third | Virat Kohli (357) | Ravichandran Ashwin (5) |
| 2014 | Third | Shikhar Dhawan (192) | Ravichandran Ashwin (9) |
| 2016 | Winner | Virat Kohli (153) | Hardik Pandya (7) |
| 2018 | Winner | Shikhar Dhawan (342) | Kuldeep Yadav (10) |
INDIA ON TOP OF THE PILE
India enjoys the highest win percentage across ODI and T20I formats in the Asia Cup. While Sri Lanka is a close second in the overall charts, it leads in the ODI table with a win percentage of 68 percent, compared to India’s 63.26 percent. Hong Kong is the only country which has failed to register a single win at the Asia Cup while Oman is the lone team to have only played the tournament in the T20 format.
| Team | Matches | Won | Lost | Tie/NR | Win% |
| India | 54 | 36 | 16 | 2 | 66.66 |
| Sri Lanka | 54 | 35 | 19 | 0 | 64.81 |
| Pakistan | 49 | 28 | 20 | 1 | 57.14 |
| Afghanistan | 12 | 5 | 6 | 1 | 41.66 |
| Oman | 3 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 33.33 |
| UAE | 11 | 3 | 8 | 0 | 27.27 |
| Bangladesh | 48 | 10 | 38 | 0 | 20.83 |
| Hong Kong | 9 | 0 | 9 | 0 | 0.00 |
INDIA’S HEAD-TO-HEAD STATS AT THE ASIA CUP
| India vs Bangladesh: Played - 14; Won - 13; Lost - 1; Tie/No Result - 0; Win% - 92.85 |
Last Asia Cup meeting: India beat Bangladesh by three wickets (Dubai, 2018)
India has dominated Bangladesh in the Asia Cup, having lost just the one game in 2012 when the latter made it to the final of the tournament for the first time and eventually losing to Pakistan by two runs in the summit clash. India and Bangladesh have been the finallists in the last two editions of the Asia Cup (2016 and 2018) with the Men in Blue getting the better of the Tigers on both occasions.
| India vs Sri Lanka: Played - 20; Won - 10; Lost - 10; Tie/No Result - 0; Win% - 50.00 |
Last Asia Cup meeting: India beat Sri Lanka by five wickets (Mirpur, 2016)
The two most successful sides at the Asia Cup have been at par with each other in the overall head-to-head record. India and Sri Lanka have played each other eight times in the final, with the former holding a 5-3 advantage over the Lankans.
| India vs Pakistan: Played - 14; Won - 8; Lost - 5; Tie/No Result - 0; Win% - 57.14 |
Last Asia Cup meeting: India beat Pakistan by nine wickets (Dubai, 2018)
India has a favourable head-to-head record against archrival Pakistan in the Asia Cup and is on a three-match winning streak against it in the tournament. The last time Pakistan beat India at the continental event was in 2014 in Mirpur.
| India vs Afghanistan: Played - 2; Won - 1; Lost - 0; Tie/No Result - 1; Win% - 50.00 |
Last Asia Cup meeting: Match Tied (Dubai, 2018)
India and Afghanistan have locked horns only two times in the Asia Cup but have been involved in the only tied match in the history of the tournament. The two teams are yet to play each other in a T20I at the Asia Cup.
| India vs Hong Kong: Played - 2; Won - 2; Lost - 0; Tie/No Result - 0; Win% - 100.00 |
Last Asia Cup meeting: India beat Hong Kong by 26 runs (Dubai, 2018)
India has played Hong Kong only twice at the Asia Cup with a 10-year gap between the two contests. While India won the first one by a thumping 256 runs in 2008, a decade later the margin was reduced to just 26 runs.
| India vs UAE: Played - 2; Won - 2; Lost - 0; Tie/No Result - 0; Win% - 100.00 |
Last Asia Cup meeting: India beat UAE by nine wickets (Mirpur, 2016)
India and UAE have faced off on two occasions at the Asia Cup, once in an ODI in 2004 and in the T20 format in 2016 almost 12 years later.
TOP INDIAN PERFORMERS AT THE ASIA CUP
Most Runs
| Batters | Innings | Runs | Batting Average | Batting Strike Rate | Highest Score |
| Sachin Tendulkar | 21 | 971 | 51.10 | 85.47 | 114 |
| Rohit Sharma | 26 | 883 | 42.04 | 90.01 | 111* |
| Virat Kohli | 14 | 766 | 63.83 | 99.60 | 183 |
| MS Dhoni | 20 | 690 | 69.00 | 91.51 | 109* |
| Shikhar Dhawan | 13 | 613 | 51.08 | 93.58 | 127 |
Most Wickets
| Bowlers | Innings | Wickets | Economy Rate | Bowling Average | Best Bowling |
| Ravindra Jadeja | 18 | 22 | 4.56 | 26.59 | 4/29 |
| Irfan Pathan | 12 | 22 | 5.54 | 27.50 | 4/32 |
| R Ashwin | 11 | 18 | 4.86 | 22.33 | 3/31 |
| Sachin Tendulkar | 15 | 17 | 4.76 | 21.41 | 3/21 |
| Kapil Dev | 7 | 15 | 3.56 | 13.00 | 4/31 |
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