It was the day of 13 April 1984 when India won the Asia Cup for the first time by defeating their arch-rivals Pakistan, led by Sunil Gavaskar, in which wicketkeeper batsman Surinder Khanna played an important role and 36 years old events are still fresh in his mind. India played this tournament a year ago without Kapil Dev making the team the World Champion.
He was then in Sharjah but had to go to England for a knee operation. India defeated Sri Lanka by ten wickets in the first match. India piled on Sri Lanka for 96 with the superb bowling of Madanlal, Chetan Sharma and Manoj Prabhakar. After this, Khanna (51 not out) and Ghulam Parkar (32 not out) led the team to an easy victory and reached the final.
Khanna told him, "I was returning then. Syed Kirmani was also included in the fifteen-member team, but Gavaskar decided to put me in the playing XI. I was returning after the 1979 World Cup and so this tournament was very important for me. When I became the man of the match in the first match after the return, the whole team celebrated him. Among them was Kapil.
India faced Pakistan in the final. India decided to bat first and scored 188 runs for four wickets in the stipulated 46 overs. Opener Khanna again showed the brilliance of his bat and scored 56 runs. Apart from him, Sandeep Patil scored 43 and Gavaskar scored 36 not out. Pakistan's team was dismissed for 134 runs in 39.4 overs.
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