Women's T20 Asia Cup 2022 schedule announced, India to face Pakistan on October 7

Harmanpreet Kaur's Indian Women's cricket team is all set to battle it out with six other teams as they fight it out for the Women's T20 Asia Cup trophy. The schedule of the tournament was announced on Tuesday, with Asian Cricket Council (ACC) president Jay Shah giving insights on the tournament which could rewrite history. 

The Indian women's team begin their campaign against Sri Lanka on October 1 in the tournament opener, and they will lock horn with arch-rivals Pakistan on October 7. 

The eighth edition of the Women Asia Cup 2022 will feature seven teams playing for the coveted cup with the final scheduled to be played on October 15. 

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The tournament will feature India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Malaysia, UAE and Bangladesh.

Bangladesh is set to host the tournament and the matches will be played at the Sylhet International Cricket Stadium.

India will begin their campaign against Sri Lanka and will play its opening match on October 1 at the Sylhet International Cricket Stadium ground 2, with the match starting at 1:30 pm. India will play a total of six matches in a round-robin format before the semi-finals are decided and will hope to make it to the finals of the tournament. 

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They next play Malaysia (October 3) and UAE (October 4) on successive days before taking on Pakistan. 

The Indian eves face off against hosts Bangladesh on October 8 and the round-robin game against minnows Thailand is on October 10.

Jay Shah stated that the tournament is the first one in which seven teams will be participating. He also mentioned the all-female tournament in which the umpires and match referees will also be female officials.

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"For the first time in the history, 7 women's teams will be participating in a complete round robin format which we anticipate will be a great boost to the ACC associate teams. We are also very pleased to note that the tournament will be conducted in line with ACC's vision for women's cricket," stated ACC President Jay Shah.

"The ACC, with this vision in mind, is constantly striving toward being more inclusive. The 2022 edition of the Women's Asia Cup will therefore see more embedded female participation. For the first time ever, an ACC tournament will see an all-female presence on the playing field, with the women's tournament being slated to have only female umpires and female match referees. As an organization, we hope to continue to take steps to strengthen the sport by highlighting female talent in every avenue," he added. 

With inputs from ANI