Asia Cup 2025: Who Has The Edge - Pakistan's Pace vs Afghanistan's Spin?



Shaheen Afridi and Rashid Khan (Source:@gh_spogmai/X.com)Shaheen Afridi and Rashid Khan (Source:@gh_spogmai/X.com)

The Asia Cup 2025 is around the corner, and it promises to be a cracking tournament with some quality teams going against each other. Two of those teams are Afghanistan and Pakistan. In recent times, the Afghan boys have done pretty well at the international level, and some cricket pundits have called them the second-best team in Asia.

Pakistan, on the other hand, have played some below-par cricket and doubts are creeping about their ability to dominate in Asia. However, they still have a potent bowling attack and, as always, are more dependent on the pacers as compared to their spinners.

Afghanistan, on the contrary, are more dependent on their spinners. They have the likes of Rashid Khan, Mujeeb Ur Rehman, Noor Ahmad and Mohammad Nabi in their arsenal, and their success will determine how Afghanistan's campaign in the Asia Cup pans out. Thus, in this article, we will look at which bowling arsenal can be more effective in the Asia Cup 2025.

Bowling Arsenal And T20I Record

Pakistan

Bowlers
Matches
Wickets
Shaheen Afridi83106
Haris Rauf
89124
Salman Mirza48
Hasan Ali
57
72
Mohammad Wasim Jr.2936
Faheem Ashraf60
46
Sufiyan Muqeem1623
Abrar Ahmed1417
Mohammad Nawaz6964

As seen from the above table, Pakistan have six pace bowling options out of the total nine on display. There is Saim Ayub too who can bowl off-break, but he is more of a part-time bowler while the names on the table are either pure bowlers or all-rounders.  The table also shows that Pakistan have experienced pacers like Shaheen Afridi and Haris Rauf in the squad while their two frontline spinners, Abrar Ahmed and Sufiyan Muqeem have combined wickets tally of 40 wickets in T20Is.

Afghanistan

Bowlers
Matches
Wickets
Fazalhaq Farooqi
4657
Fareed Ahmad Malik
3342
Naveen-ul-Haq4867
Azmatullah Omarzai
50
32
Gulbadin Naib
7533
Karim Janat
70
42
Sharafuddin Ashraf
2011
Rashid Khan
99167
Allah Ghaznafar1
0
Mujeeb Ur Rahman
5164
Noor Ahmad159
Mohammad Nabi135101

Afghanistan, on the other hand, have 12 bowling options at their disposal. However, they have just three frontline seamers in the form of Fazalhaq Farooqi, Fareed Ahmad Malik and Naveen-ul-Haq. The other seam bowling options are all-rounders while they have five quality spinners in their line-up.

Rashid Khan, Mohammad Nabi and Mujeeb Ur Rehman are also way more experienced their their pacers which makes them a team that would rely on their spinners more in crunch situations.

Pitches In UAE And Suitability Of Bowling Attack

The analysis of the bowling attacks of two sides show that Pakistan would prefer pitches that would assist seamers more while Afghanistan would want the surfaces to be helpful for the tweakers.

The Asia Cup 2025 will be played in two venues, the Dubai International Cricket Stadium and the Sheikh Zayed Cricket Stadium in Abu Dhabi. The final and most of the Super four matches will be played in Dubai while Afghanistan will play all its group stage matches in Abu Dhabi. Pakistan, on the other hand, will play all their group stage games in Dubai.

Thus, for Pakistan, conditions in Dubai would be important. If we consider the data, historically, pacers have taken more wickets at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium as compared to spinners. However, wickets cannot be the only criteria to judge the nature of the pitch as fast bowlers tend to bowl more overs in T20Is, especially at the death, which helps in bagging more wickets.

Performance Of Pacers At Dubai International Cricket Stadium

Criterion
Data
Matches93
Overs1979
Wickets665
Average22.63
Strike-Rate17.8
Economy7.60

Performance Of Spinners At Dubai International Cricket Stadium

Criterion
Data
Matches93
Overs1467.4
Wickets446
Average21.52
Strike-Rate19.7
Economy6.54

Challenges For Pakistan In Asia Cup

If we consider the average, spinners are slightly ahead and their economy rate is also pretty good compared to pacers. It shows that batters find it more difficult to score runs quickly against spinners at the Dubai International Cricket Ground which could prove to be an important factor in the upcoming Asia Cup as well.

Also, there is not much difference in the strike-rate of pacers and spinners, which shows that having quality spinners in the line-up in Dubai could be more useful to choke down the batters and create pressure. Thus, it would be important for Pakistan spinners to support their experienced pacers Shaheen Afridi and Haris Rauf with good spells in the middle overs. Otherwise, teams with better spin attack like India and Afghanistan could move ahead of them.

Challenges For Afghanistan In Asia Cup

Afghanistan, on the other hand, would need to play well in Abu Dhabi to get through to the next round. So, if we look at the record at the Sheikh Zayed Cricket Stadium, pacers have more wickets under their belt that spinners here too. However, unlike Dubai, there is not much difference in the amount of overs bowled by spinners and pacers.

Therefore, pacers here have much better average and strike-rate compared to the tweakers. The economy rate of spinners is better but pacers have clearly made big impact with their wicket-taking ability at the ground. Thus, the fast bowlers are likely to play bigger role in Abu Dhabi compared to Dubai.

Performance Of Spinners In Sheikh Zayed Stadium, Abu Dhabi

Criterion
Data
Matches68
Overs1054.3
Wickets270
Average26.10
Strike-Rate23.4
Economy6.68

Performance Of Pacers In Sheikh Zayed Stadium, Abu Dhabi

Criterion
Data
Matches68
Overs1508
Wickets484
Average22.82
Strike-Rate18.6
Economy7.32

As a result, Afghanistan who are more dependent on their spinners would have to make sure that their pacers like Fazalhaq Farooqi and Naveen-ul-Haq take more responsibility. The conditions could assist batters more in Abu Dhabi and if their pacers struggle, they might end up leaking more runs. The good thing for Afghanistan is that their speedsters have experience of playing in franchise leagues across the world, which could help them balance out the conditions in UAE.

Conclusion:

Therefore, looking at the schedule of Asia Cup, conditions, and the the bowling arsenal of both teams, it can be concluded that both Pakistan and Afghanistan would play their group stage games in conditions that do not align to their strengths.

However, Afghanistan's weak link (fast bowlers) in the bowling attack is more experienced that Pakistan's weak link (Spinners). Also, the Afghan unit has many seam-bowling all-rounders which could help them where conditions are not that helpful for spinners in Asia Cup. Pakistan, on the other hand, seem heavily dependent on Shaheen Afridi and Haris Rauf and would have to find a way to use their spinners more efficiently.

Another, thing that goes in favour of Afghanistan is that if they qualify for Super Four, they would get a chance to play in Dubai which would bring their spinners more in the game. Thus, overall, Afghanistan's bowling attack seems to be slightly more apt for Asia Cup compared to the one of Pakistan.