Category World News

Who: Pakistan vs. India
What: T20 Asia Cup 2025 final
When: Sunday, September 28 at 14:30 GMT
Where: Dubai International Cricket Stadium, Dubai, United Arab Emirates

In a high-stakes Asia Cup final on Sunday in Dubai, India and Pakistan will square off against one another with political and physical conflict weighing heavily on their debut regional championship contest.

After falling behind Bangladesh by 11 runs on Thursday, Pakistan’s victory in the decider will set the stage for a blockbuster meeting with their neighbors and rival India.

In the wake of their victory over Bangladesh on Wednesday, reigning champions India became the first team to reach the final.

Suryakumar Yadav’s team won the Super Fours game on Friday, crushing Sri Lanka in a heart-pounding Super Over victory.

What information is crucial to the Asia Cup 2025 final:

What has caused India and Pakistan recently to conflict?

The nuclear-armed neighbors’ intense four-day conflict, which has not been played in a bilateral series in more than a decade, is the subject of the showdown.

What transpired during the most recent India-Pakistan match?

India and Suryakumar Yadav’s teammate Salman Agha won both of their matches at their most recent group and Super Four encounters in this Asia Cup, but Suryakumar Yadav, their captain, refused to shake hands with them.

After each game, players from both teams skipped post-match handshakes.

How has India performed in the Asia Cup?

In this 17th Asia Cup game, they have won all six of their matches in the T20 format, aiming for a ninth title that will entice them to the top.

Kuldeep Yadav, who has taken 12 wickets, is in command of the bowling charts, while opener Abhishek Sharma has enjoyed stupendous form in recent weeks with successive half-centuries.

However, their fielding is suspect, with 12 catches already dropped from the tournament.

The butter-fingered display was caused by the stadium’s 350 floodlights’ “ring of fire,” according to spinner Varun Chakravarthy.

The fielding coach has a lot to say, Chakravarthy said, and we need to pick up our fielding.

What are Pakistan’s chances of defeating India in the final?

Pakistan, a two-time Asia Cup champion, will rely on their pace duo of Shaheen Shah Afridi and Rauf to create early breakthroughs, while spinners Mohammad Nawaz and Abrar Ahmed will aim to contain India’s potent starting bats.

However, their batting is still a concern after falling to 49-5 against Bangladesh before posting a winning total of 135-8.

After defeating Pakistan for the second time in the tournament, Suryakumar downplayed the on-field conflict, but coach Mike Hesson believes his team can challenge the top-ranked T20 side.

India and Pakistan have both won the Asia Cup how many times?

In 2000 and 2012, Pakistan won the trophy twice and advanced to the final five.

With 11 final appearances, India has won the Asia Cup seven times.

When did Pakistan last last defeat India?

In the UAE’s Asia Cup 2022 edition, Pakistan won the last time they lost to India. In the Super Four match, Mohammad Rizwan had a top 71 runs, but Mohammad Nawaz’s 20-ball 41 earned Pakistan a victory.

Head-to-head T20Is India vs. Pakistan

The nations have hosted 15 T20Is since the ICC T20 World Cup’s inaugural event in 2007. India has won 12 matches, including the first one that ended in a Super Over, in 2007, which was tied at one point.

Dubai was the only country to win three out of four.

Watch out for India

Abhishek Sharma: One to watch in the Asia Cup is the young top-order batter who has carved out a spot in a fierce T20 Indian starting lineup. The 24-year-old has the best career strike rate of 198 among all T20 batters, which is second only to the format’s 198, which includes his three most recent Super Fours victories against Pakistan.

Watch out for Pakistan.

Shaheen Shah Afridi, the former Pakistani captain, turned in a star role in the crucial victory over Bangladesh. The 25-year-old left-arm quick took eight wickets in the previous three games, including his Player of the Match performance against the Tigers, which came with 3-17.

Formal instructions for India

Since winning the World Cup in June 2024, India has not lost a T20 series and is unbeaten in Asia.

W-W-W-W-W-W-W-W-W-W-W-W results in the last five results (most recent first):

Formal instructions for Pakistan

Pakistan has struggled with T20 matches for a while, but this year’s Asia Cup saw only four wins overall against India. However, this year’s team has experienced mixed T20 performances.

W-W-L-W-L-W-L is the last five results (most recently first).

India team news

The champions are expected to return to the same team that defeated Pakistan in both the group and Super Fours stages.

Line-up for India anticipated:

Sanju Samson, Hardik Pandya, Shivam Dube, Axar Patel, Jasprit Bumrah, Varun Chakravarthy, Kuldeep Yadav, Suryakumar Yadav (captain), Shubman Gill, Sanju Samson (wicketkeeper), Abhishek Sharma, Shubman Gill, Axar Patel, Jasprit Bumrah, Varun Chakravarthy,

Pakistan team news

The same XI that defeated Sri Lanka is expected to play for Pakistan.

Line-up was predicted by Pakistan:

Sahibzada Farhan, Fakhar Zaman, Saim Ayub, Salman Agha (captain), Hussain Talat, Mohammad Nawaz, Faheem Ashraf, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Haris Rauf, and Abrar Ahmed are just a few examples.

How can I watch the Pakistan vs. India Asia Cup final live?

From 9:00 to 10:30 GMT, Al Jazeera Sport will have live coverage of the final, as well as a detailed photo and text commentary stream.

The game will be broadcast live on terrestrial and satellite channels as well as live-streaming platforms around the world.

How do I purchase the tickets to the Asia Cup final between India and Pakistan?

According to state media, Iran has sent its envoys to the United Kingdom, France, and Germany for consultations after the three European nations instituted a mechanism that reinstated UN sanctions against the Islamic Republic for the first time in a decade.

Iran’s ambassadors to Germany, France, and the United Kingdom have been summoned to Tehran for consultations, according to state news agency Tasnim and others, following the irresponsible actions of the three European nations to reinstate UN Security Council resolutions.

Only four nations supported the draft resolution, which would allow for sanctions to be reimposed, so Russia and China made the decision the day after the 15-member UN Security Council’s failure to delay the lifting of the international sanctions against Iran.

Iran was accused of failing to come clean about its nuclear program, including through countermeasures it took in response to bombing by Israel and the United States during a 12-day conflict in June, which the E3 countries claimed killed more than 1, 000 people.

The sanctions, which are scheduled to take effect on Sunday at 00:00 GMT, will put an end to international cooperation with Iran in the fields of the nuclear, military, banking, and shipping industries. The rial, Iran’s national currency, hit record lows on Saturday, trading for more than 1.1 million US dollars in Tehran’s open market.

The International Atomic Energy Agency stated on Friday that some Iranian sites had resumed inspections this week, but it did not specify whether this included locations where nuclear weapons could be buried. These sites were also bombed by the US and Israel. Iran’s nuclear chief Mohammad Eslami once more criticized the UN nuclear watchdog for rejecting airstrikes on Iranian nuclear sites at the World Atomic Week forum in Moscow.

Over the past few days, at least two Iranian proposals to postpone snapback have been rejected by Western powers, claiming they did not see enough progress to support a delay following a week of top-level diplomacy at the UN General Assembly.

When, in his opinion, Israel and the US were attempting to use the pressure to overthrow the theocratic establishment, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said there was no reason to reach a deal.

Pezeshkian insisted once more that Iran will never pursue nuclear weapons, saying, “If the goal had been to resolve concerns about the nuclear programme, we could easily do that.”

He also accused the US of pressuring Europe to reject any compromise.

US envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, claimed on Wednesday that the country was open to further discussions but did not want to hurt Iran. However, he also claimed that snapback was “the right remedy for what’s happening.”

Iran is under new economic pressure as a result of the sanctions, but it’s not yet known whether all nations will follow their lead.

Russian deputy ambassador Dmitry Polyansky stated on Friday that Moscow, Iran’s main trading partner, viewed the lifting of sanctions as “null and void.”

Iran has already been subject to unilateral sanctions from the US and the E3, and Chinese companies have tried to stop buying Iranian oil. Chinese companies have been subject to a number of sanctions by the US for oil imports.

In his first term, Trump launched a “maximum pressure” campaign after withdrawing from a landmark 2015 nuclear deal that had demanded immediate sanctions in exchange for drastic restrictions on Iran’s nuclear program.

The new sanctions represent a “snapback” of UN actions that were suspended as a result of the 2015 agreement.

In a defiant UN address on Friday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged Israel to stop the snapback and suggested that Israel was prepared to attack Iran’s nuclear program once more.

Pezeshkian reaffirmed Iran’s commitment to halting the sanctions by reneging on the nuclear non-proliferation treaty, warning that unnamed powers were seeking a “superficial pretext to set the region ablaze.”

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), which led the Israeli airstrikes against Israel during the war, released a statement on Saturday to mark the one year since Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah, senior IRGC commander Abbas Nilforoushan, and other people were killed in major Israeli air raids in Beirut.

The US and Israel have failed in their “vil plans,” according to the statement, adding that “active and smart resistance” is the only viable option for the region against Israeli “expansionism.”

The Supreme National Security Council of Iran’s secretary, Ali Larijani, was in Lebanon on Saturday to observe a ceremony to commemorate the anniversary, telling reporters that Israel has made it clear that it is showing “mercy to no country.”

After an Israeli attack on an Al Jazeera reporter interviewed a displaced Palestinian mother in the al-Shati refugee camp near Gaza City, witnesses saw women and children screaming and rushing for safety.

Jennifer Lawrence, an American actress, calls the situation in Gaza “no less than a genocide.” The mother of two and X-Men star was asked how she felt watching so many children die in conflicts.