- Monday, March 10, 2025
By: Shubham Ghosh
Defending champions India witnessed a complete U-turn from what they did in the group stage of the ongoing Asia Cup in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, in the Super Four by losing two straight games against Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Rohit Sharma’s men now have one game remaining — against Afghanistan — and even if they win it on Thursday (8), chances of them making the final are slim.
Theoretically, however, India could still qualify for the title round but it’s a complicated arithmetic.
First, Pakistan will have to lose both their matches — against Afghanistan (7) and Sri Lanka (8). Sri Lanka already have two wins and are beyond India’s reach. Pakistan have one win at the moment and another win will take them out of India’s reach as well. So they will have to lose both their remaining games and end with two points.
Secondly, India will have to win against the Afghans by a major margin so that their net run rate (NRR) sees a big boost. India’s current NRR is minus 0.125 while that of Sri Lanka is 0.351 and Pakistan, 0.126. Afghanistan’s NRR is minus 0.589. Even if India, Pakistan and Afghanistan end up with two points, the NRR will be the deciding factor and the Men in Blue will have a lot of work to do on that part as well.
