ACC Rising Stars tournament starts November 14; India vs Pakistan on November 16

Pakistan and Oman will kick off the Asian Cricket Council's (ACC) Rising Stars T20 tournament in Doha, Qatar, on November 14, with the showpiece India vs Pakistan match slotted for November 16. On Friday, the organisers announced the two groups: Group A has Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Hong Kong and Sri Lanka, while Group B has India, Oman, Pakistan and UAE.

The tournament, earlier known as the ACC Emerging Teams Asia Cup, will be played in the T20 format and pit the 'A' teams of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. The three Associate teams, Hong Kong, Oman and UAE, will field their main teams. Two games will be played each day from November 14 to November 19, before the semi-finals are played on November 21 and the final on November 23.

This will be the first cricketing exchange between the men's teams of India and Pakistan since the senior Asia Cup in September, though the senior women's teams faced off at the ODI World Cup earlier this month.

When the men played the Asia Cup, there were no handshakes or any other form of greetings between the players of the two countries, and it ended with India, the tournament champions, leaving Dubai without the trophy. It emerged that they had decided not to receive the trophy from the ACC chief, Mohsin Naqvi, who is also a parliamentarian in Pakistan and the chairman of the PCB. An ACC official removed the trophy from the dais after a long delay once it became clear that the victors would not be coming up to collect it.

The Emerging Teams tournament began in 2013 and has had six editions so far, having started as an Under-23s tournament before being switched to a competition featuring 'A' teams. Pakistan and Sri Lanka have won it twice each, while India and Afghanistan have won it once apiece - Afghanistan won the last edition, in 2024 in Oman, beating Sri Lanka in the final by seven wickets.