Erasmus, the 54-year-old South African who officiated both in the ICC Champions Trophy pool match — when India defeated Pakistan at Edgbaston — and the final in June 2017, won convincingly by Sarfraz Ahmed’s men against Virat Kohli’s bunch at The Oval, will be partnered on the field by Sri Lanka’s Ruchira Palliyaguruge with Gregory Brathwaite of West Indies named as the TV umpire and former Australian batsman David Boon as the match referee.

The 50-over competition officially begins on Saturday at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium with Sri Lanka playing Bangladesh in the Group ‘A’ game. Afghanistan are the other side in this pool.

Moreover, Erasmus — who has so far stood in 77 ODIs apart from 51 Tests and 26 T20 Internationals — could be officiating in another Pakistan vs India tie as the on-field umpire in the Super Four match when the two qualifiers from Group ‘B’ play in Abu Dhabi on Sept 23 with appointments for the second on-field official and TV umpire to be made later by the Asian Cup organisers.

Ex-Zimbabwe batsman Andy Pycroft is the other match referee for the Asia while the panel of umpires also includes ICC international panel members Shaun George of South Africa, Pakistan’s Ahsan Raza, Nitin Menon of India, Bangladesh’s Anisur Rahman and Ahmad Pakteen of Afghanistan.

Hong Kong, who qualified for the competition after defeating UAE in the final of the Asian Cup qualifiers in Malaysia last week, open their Group ‘B’ campaign against Pakistan in Dubai on Sept 16 with Tucker and Pakteen named as on-field umpires with George supervising as the TV official and Pycroft as the match referee.

Erasmus and Boon have been further being nominated to officiate in the final in Dubai on Sept 28 with Australia’s Rod Tucker monitoring the TV replays. Meanwhile, the ICC confirmed that it has awarded ODI status to all matches in the Asia Cup with the governing body’s chief executive saying in a statement: “To grant ODI status to all matches in the Asia Cup is a positive step taken by the ICC Board as we continue to take an in-depth look at international cricket structures in relation to our long-term ambition of growing the game and adding to the one billion fans who already follow the sport.”

Hong Kong are the only team in the tournament without ODI status. Richardson further said: “This decision was informed by our review of the ICC Cricket World Cup Qualifier earlier this year where there was a mix of games with and without international status which proved to be confusing for fans.

“In order to simplify the situation we will extend the ICC Cricket World Cup principle of all matches being ODIs to other tournaments where a number of the teams have ODI status and some not, this includes the Asia Cup and ICC Cricket World Cup Qualifiers.”