Team India's Squad for Asia Cup 2025: The BCCI on Tuesday announced the Indian team for Asia Cup 2025. The selection committee led by Ajit Agarkar has selected a 15-member team for the tournament. Suryakumar Yadav will lead India. At the same time, Shubman Gill has been given the responsibility of vice-captaincy. The Asia Cup in T20 format will start from September 9 in the UAE.
The Indian selectors have kept their faith in the opening pair of Abhishek Sharma and Sanju Samson for the Asia Cup. Opener Abhishek Sharma is also the world's number one batsman in the T20 rankings. Apart from him, world number 2 batsman in the T20 rankings Tilak Verma has also been selected for the Asia Cup.
While Sanju, Abhishek and Tilak are in the top order, in the middle order, apart from captain Suryakumar Yadav, players like Hardik Pandya, Akshar Patel, Rinku Singh have got a place. Jitesh Sharma is the second wicketkeeper batsman in the team.
On the bowling front, Bumrah and Arshdeep will be seen shouldering the burden of pace attack. Varun Chakravarthy and Kuldeep Yadav have been added to the Asia Cup team to strengthen the spin.
However, there were some big players who did not get a chance. Those players included names like Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shreyas Iyer, Washington Sundar, Mohammad Siraj.
"It's very unfortunate for Yashasvi Jaiswal, with Abhishek doing well, he can bowl as well - one of the two was going to miss out - same with Shreyas, not his fault. With respect to Shreyas Iyer, who can he replace? It's no fault of his, but neither ours," BCCI chief selector Ajit Agarkar said.
India's Squad for the Asia Cup: Surya Kumar Yadav (C), Shubman Gill (VC), Abhishek Sharma, Tilak Varma, Hardik Pandya, Shivam Dube, Axar Patel, Jitesh Sharma (WK), Jasprit Bumrah, Arshdeep Singh, Varun Chakaravarthy, Kuldeep Yadav, Sanju Samson (WK), Harshit Rana, Rinku Singh.
8 teams will participate in the Asia Cup, which have been divided into two groups of 4 each. Group A has Pakistan, UAE and Oman along with India. Group B has Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan and Hong Kong. India will start its campaign on 10 September but fans will be waiting for 14 September more. The match between India and Pakistan will be played on 14 September.
India is the host of Asia Cup 2025 but its matches will be played in UAE. The reason for this is the bad relations between India and Pakistan. If Asia Cup matches were held in India, Pakistan could have boycotted the tournament or it could have demanded that its matches be held in some other country. BCCI took the middle path and decided to hold the tournament in UAE and foiled Pakistan's attempt to create any controversy.
Team India's schedule for Asia Cup 2025
India vs UAE: September 10: Dubai
India vs Pakistan: September 14: Dubai
India vs Oman: September 19: Dubai.
