Asia Cup records: A look at the best individual player and team performances through the history of the competition
Kohli, Kumar among individual player T20I record-holders at Asia Cup
India made a storming start to their Asia Cup title defence in midweek when they demolished the United Arab Emirates and confirmed our cricket predictions. Kuldeep Yadav was the star of the piece, claiming four wickets for just seven runs in 2.1 overs.
However, Yadav’s short but excellent spell is not the greatest we’ve seen at the Asia Cup over the years, as the best bowling figures ever produced in this competition (T20I) came from his former teammate Bhuvneshwar Kumar, who bagged five wickets for only four runs against Afghanistan in 2022.
As far as batting goes, it is unsurprising to see that the highest individual score ever recorded at the Asia Cup came off the bat of Virat Kohli. King Kohli smashed an unbeaten 122 against Afghanistan in 2022 during the same match that Kumar notched up his fifer.
Kohli also holds the highest score in the competition when it was contested in the ODI format. He scored 183 against arch-rivals Pakistan in 2012. Spanning all formats, Sri Lanka’s Lasith Malinga has the most wickets (33), followed by Muttiah Muralitharan (31).
Sanath Jayasurya still holds the record for the most centuries scored in Asia Cup history with six, while former India skipper Rohit Sharma has played the most matches in the competition (37) and has the most sixes (40), 13 more than Shahid Afridi.
Over to fielding, and the record for most catches ever taken in a single match by a non-wicketkeeper is held by Pakistani-born Babar Hayat, who was the former captain of Hong Kong and took four catches against Afghanistan in 2016.
Records held by past and present teams at the Asia Cup
Prior to 2016, the Asia Cup was contested as ODIs, and Pakistan hold the record for the highest team score in the 50-over format with 385/7. Since changing to T20Is, India recorded the highest score of 212/2 against Afghanistan in 2022.
Moving to the opposite end of the spectrum, it is Hong Kong that has the unwanted record of the lowest score ever recorded at the Asia Cup, which was 38 all out against Pakistan. The UAE are now second on that list after scoring just 57 earlier this week.
Finally, the record for the lowest successfully defended total ever at the Asia Cup (T20I) belongs to Sri Lanka, who managed to beat the United Arab Emirates by 14 runs after scoring just 129 in the first year that the tournament was changed to the shortest format.
