It has been almost a month since Team India won the Asia Cup in UAE, but the trophy has not been received yet.
The Men in Blue registered a thrilling win over arch-rivals Pakistan in the final and extended their dominance in the continental championship.
Tilak Verma shines in Athesia Cup final
On the basis of Tilak Verma’s unbeaten inning of 69 runs, India defeated Pakistan by five wickets. Batting first, Pakistan was all out for 146 runs despite the score being 113/1 at one point. Kuldeep Yadav bowled brilliantly for India and took 4 wickets for 30 runs in 4 overs.
In reply, India were in trouble at 20/3 with Abhishek Sharma, Suryakumar Yadav and Shubman Gill all out. After this, Tilak Verma and Sanju Samson took over the team by making a partnership of 57 runs and Samson left. Tilak Verma remained unbeaten till the end to help India win in the last over.
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However, India’s spectacular victory was soon overshadowed by a controversial incident as they did not receive the winners’ trophy. Suryakumar Yadav and his men refused to accept the trophy from ACC chief Mohsin Naqvi, who is also the PCB chief and Pakistan’s interior minister.
After the Indian team refused to come on stage, Naqvi eventually stepped down. However, he also ordered the ACC official to take the trophy off the field. In the end the Indian team celebrated its victory without the trophy. BCCI filed a complaint but the trophy has not been received yet.
Tilak Verma spoke on Asia Cup trophy controversy
Recently in an interview, Verma spoke openly about the entire incident that happened after the Asia Cup final. He said that the players expected to get the trophy, but it was not found anywhere. In the end the players decided to celebrate the victory in a grand manner even without the trophy.
“We were literally waiting on the ground for an hour. If you see the TV visuals, you will see that I was lying on the ground. The rest of the people were also lying on the ground. Arshdeep Singh was busy making reels. We were just waiting, and we were thinking, ‘The trophy will come any time now.’ An hour passed, and the trophy was nowhere to be found. We were looking around, but the trophy was nowhere to be found,” Tilak said on Breakfast with Champions.
Arshdeep said, let’s create an atmosphere – Tilak Verma
“Arshdeep said, let’s create an atmosphere. He said we should celebrate like the T20 World Cup in 2024, without the trophy. Abhishek Sharma, we along with 5-6 more people, gave our consent for it. Then we went ahead with it,”
Meanwhile, the BCCI had recently written a letter to the ACC requesting it to hand over the trophy to Naqvi. However, the ACC president is adamant on his stand and saying that India can regain their title provided a player and an official get it from them in Dubai.
