The Women's Asia Cup Opens in Dubai, and the Smaller Sides Go First

The Women's Asia Cup begins today at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium, with Thailand against Hong Kong China opening a tournament that runs to 13 September.

Today's match

Two sides from Group A who will both expect their tournament to be decided by matches other than this one. India and Pakistan are the other two in that group, so for Thailand and Hong Kong China this is realistically the fixture where a group-stage win is available, and both will know it.

That makes an opening match between the two lowest-profile teams in the draw considerably more interesting than the billing suggests. It is not a warm-up for either of them. It is the game.

The rest of the week

India begin on 30 August against Thailand. Group B, containing defending champions Sri Lanka along with Bangladesh, the United Arab Emirates and Indonesia, gets under way in the same opening stretch.

The fixture drawing most of the attention comes later: India play Pakistan on 5 September, in the group stage rather than a knockout.

The shape of the tournament

Eight teams, two groups of four, top two from each into semi-finals on 10 and 11 September, and the final on 13 September. Every match at the same ground.

India arrive as seven-time champions. Sri Lanka arrive holding the trophy.

What we will and will not publish

Our women's Twenty20 international records begin in 2020, so what we can say with our own numbers varies a lot by team across this field. For India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh there is a real base to work from. For Thailand, Hong Kong China, Indonesia and the UAE there is very little, and we would rather say so than produce a figure that looks authoritative and is built on a handful of matches.

Where we publish a number during this tournament it will name the matches it covers. Where we do not have the data, we will not publish one.