Asia Cup 2022: "They lose against whomsoever they play" - Aakash Chopra on Sri Lanka's poor record heading into Afghanistan game

Aakash Chopra has said that Sri Lanka are heading into their Asia Cup 2022 opener against Afghanistan with a dismal recent record in T20I cricket.

Dubai will host the Group B fixture between the two teams on Saturday (August 27). That game will be followed by the much-awaited Group A clash between arch-rivals India and Pakistan at the same venue a day later.

While previewing Saturday's game in a video shared on his YouTube channel, Chopra observed that Dasun Shanaka and Co. are heading into the tournament on a losing streak, elaborating:

"If we talk about both teams, the recent form is extremely pedestrian. Sri Lanka's winning percentage is extremely bad. They lose against whomsoever they play - they lost to India and Australia."

Chopra added that Sri Lanka have not lived up to the potential they showed at last year's T20 World Cup. The cricketer-turned-commentator explained:

"They have just an 18% win percentage since the last World Cup. It seemed at the last World Cup that their graph started to rise, but they have stumbled again. Someone has cut their flying kite, which is slightly unfortunate; they are not going good."

The Lions have played three T20I series since the global T20 tournament. They suffered home and away defeats against Australia by 2-1 and 4-1 margins, respectively. They lost all three games in the other T20I series they played against India in the latter's backyard.

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"It is the same story for Afghanistan" - Aakash Chopra

Afghanistan suffered a 3-2 reversal in the recent T20I series against Ireland.

Chopra pointed out that Afghanistan are also sailing in the same boat as Sri Lanka, saying:

"It is the same story for Afghanistan as well. It is not that they are doing very well. Firstly, Afghanistan don't get a chance to play against good teams; they play against Zimbabwe and Ireland."

Chopra highlighted that the Afghans are coming into the tournament after a defeat against Ireland, a series where Rashid Khan was below-par with the ball. The former player said:

"They are not getting the chance to play good matches. After that, they are coming after losing to Ireland, and it was the first time that Rashid Khan went wicketless in three matches. So their situation is also slightly bad."

Afghanistan bounced back to draw parity after losing the first two games in the series against Ireland. They, however, lost the rain-truncated final T20I by seven wickets on the DLS method. Their premier spinner Rashid Khan managed just three wickets in the five-match series.