The squad for Asia Cup 2025 was announced today by Chair of selectors Ajit Agarkar alongside T20I captain Suryakumar Yadav. Contrary to reports that Yashasvi Jaiswal will be picked as the third opener along with regular T20I openers Abhishek Sharma & Sanju Samson, the southpaw was snubbed for the Continental Cup. The third opener selected was Shubman Gill, who is also the designated vice-captain of the squad. Aside from Jaiswal, Shreyas Iyer was also not selected for the Asia Cup side.
In the press conference when quizzed to Agarkar regarding Jaiswal's omission, the former cricketer stated that the youngster was just plain unlucky to have missed the bus for the Continental Cup, as Abhishek and Sanju Samson performed exceedingly well in the past year. In the limited opportunities the duo have got, they have scored runs at a strike rate of over 150. While Jaiswal had a good IPL 2025 for the Royals, his one-dimensional skill of just batting, might have gone against him.
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As far as Shreyas Iyer is concerned, the PBKS captain has been overlooked for the second time after being snubbed for the Test series against England. The middle-order batters selected for the Asia Cup are Tilak Varma, Hardik Pandya, Shivam Dube & Rinku Singh. All the four players have been a constant figures in the shortest format of the game for over one year. While Pandya and Dube are the seam bowling all-rounders, Varma and Rinku are handy part time slow bowlers.
Also Read: Asia Cup 2025: “Gautam Gambhir Helped Me A Lot In My Comeback” - Varun Chakravarthy
Shreyas's omission was also explained by Agarkar, stating that he was also plain unlucky to have not been part of the 15-member squad. The squad selected for Asia Cup has plenty of all-rounders, who offer both skill - batting & bowling. There are only five specialist players in the squad who offer only one skill - Gill, Chakaravarthy, Arshdeep Singh, Suryakumar Yadav & Kuldeep Yadav. Rest all 10 players selected offer two skills or some three also, which Agarkar and coach Gautam Gambhir always wanted to have in the side.
No Mohammed Siraj in the Asia Cup 2025 squad
Besides Jaiswal and Iyer's omission, the Continental Cup squad also does not see Mohammed Siraj. Incidentally, alongside Gill, the pacer also played starring role in India's 2-2 draw in the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy. He took 23 wickets - the most for the pacer across both teams. The veteran pacer was also not named in the standby squad, as the BCCI choose to go with Dhruv Jurel, Jaiswal, Riyan Parag, Prasidh Krishna, & Washington Sundar as the standby players for Continental Cup.
The Asia Cup 2025 event kicks off on September 09 to 28 in United Arab Emirates. The Suryakumar Yadav-led side will begin their campaign on September 10 against UAE in Dubai. India's league campaign ends on September 19 when they face Oman in Abu Dhabi.
India’s Full Squad For Asia Cup 2025: Suryakumar Yadav (captain), Shubman Gill (vice-captain), Abhishek Sharma, Tilak Varma, Hardik Pandya, Shivam Dube, Axar Patel, Jitesh Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah, Varun Chakaravarthy, Arshdeep Singh, Kuldeep Yadav, Sanju Samson, Harshit Rana
