Asia Cup 2008: Who will win?

Once again a culmination of Asia's cricketing talent begins to decide which country reigns supreme over the continent. This year's event held in Pakistan, welcomes the relatively unknown UAE and Honk Kong teams into the tournament.

They mix with the Indians, Sri Lankans, Pakistanis and of course the Bangladeshis. So with all this in mind, it really begs the question, who will win?

Undoubtedly (well at least to me anyway) the winner of this year's competition would lie with either India, Sri Lanka or Pakistan. Bangladesh had an impressive win to begin with, but were brought back down to earth after losing to Sri Lanka. So, let's start with the pre-tournament favourites: India.

India's form in general has been pretty good, a brilliant win in England, inaugural 20/20 champions, followed by a fighting display down in Australia that saw them win the CB series. I thought they were the better team in the Kitply Cup in Bangladesh just over a fortnight ago, but Pakistan beat them in the final.

It is not surprising to see them with the "favourites" tag. They seem to have a better balance then the other teams, however there were some concerns as to whether India had been over-worked prior to this tournament.

I still feel India are marginally light in the bowling department, the extra seamer would have been, a shame none of the front liners are available with Zaheer Khan still out and Sreesanth out at the last minute. Harbhajan Singh would have been a good inclusion giving some experience to back up Piyush Chawla, but with Sreesanth originally selected, it may have been a good idea to keep Harbhajan Singh out.

It is good now that India are adding youth to the ranks, with the Tendulkars, Dravids, and Ganguly's end in cricket on the horizon. The amount of talent India have to replace them is a very pleasing thought, after all, the majority of this squad played in the team that won in Australia.

The batsmen India have make them look like the best batting side in the tournament, with everyone showing signs of good form. All talks of being over-worked were evoked with two thumping wins against the minnows of Hong Kong and then on Thursday in the crucial game against old rivals Pakistan.

The result against Hong Kong was pretty much an inevitable occurrence, but against Pakistan it was sweet revenge after the Kitply Cup final. That final that happened over two weeks ago was a close encounter where India fell just short, but on Thursday they got rid that disappointment, in some style.

Shoaib Malik played a great knock guiding his side with the help of Younis Khan to a very good total of 300 for just the loss of four wickets. The loss of an early wicket didn't get India to the best of starts to their challenging target, but Suresh Raina and Virender Sehwag took the game away from Pakistan, slaughtering the bowling to all parts of the ground.

Yuvraj Singh and Dhoni played well too, but in comparison they merely saw India home. After these two performances, India do not look a side that are over-worked, they look like a team who deserve a team who should be favourites.

Pakistan also have a decent chance of winning. Before the Kitply Cup, Pakistan looked like a team in the re-building process. However, they have carried good momentum after their victory into the tournament.

Watching their opening game against Hong Kong, they didn't start too well and were in some kind of trouble at 161-7, but Tanvir's knock was an admirable one allowing them to get to a good total. Tanvir did well with the ball as he so very often does since he came into the side and Pakistan have found a great talent in him.

Against India, I thought Pakistan batted very well, the Indian bowlers never really got on top of the batsmen (which refers to my earlier point about India being a bowler short), and Pakistan looked on course for 300 for pretty much all their innings.

Pakistan can put this defeat behind them and they should be confident about winning more games in the competition. However they need to look at a few things in their game, after all against India it was Malik's century that got them up to 300.

If he had been out early on, India would have chased something smaller, perhaps some other contributions from others would give Pakistan totals they could be more comfortable defending. Again, being 161-7 against Hong Kong must have had them worried for a period of time.

In my opinion I can see a India vs. Pakistan final, but Sri Lanka have a 100 percent record as well as India. Although the cynics may point to the fact the opposition they played were UAE and Bangladesh, two weaker teams, the way in which they dispatched both teams should not be forgotten.

Against Bangladesh, they had a good victory, their top order is very dangerous, and no team can rest against them. Jayasuriya showed no signs of age as he made a good 72, but the star was that man again, Kumar Sangakkara. I honestly cannot remember the last time he hasn't scored a century or at least a had a decent knock for his side.

Their batting has been second to none, scoring around 650 runs as a team in just two games. This makes the super four stage intriguing in the sense that the three teams I have talked about are somewhat evenly matched, and past form can sometimes not be accounted for as what occurs on the given day that counts.

It will be interesting to see how Sri Lanka play against Pakistan in their first super four game as they have not faced one of the bigger teams yet.

Bangladesh are improving all the time, winning is beyond them, but I would not be surprised if they picked up a victory in the super four stage. Just cast your minds back to the World Cup last year, they defeated India convincingly, so who knows what the tigers will conjure up.

They may have been defeated, but their victory over UAE will give them confidence. They have some very good individuals, for example Mohammed Ashraful is an excellent batsmen. If they can fit all their credentials into a working team, in a few years time, they will be a very competitive side.

So I still think India are favourites, but Pakistan or Sri Lanka have just as much chance of winning. All four teams have players to watch.

India: Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Virender Sehwag.

Pakistan: Sohail Tanvir and Salman Butt

Sri Lanka: Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene

Bangladesh: Mohammad Ashraful and Mashrafe Mortaza