Cricket: Big calls made as India announce squad for 2025 Asia Cup
Suryakumar Yadav to lead India's Asia Cup title defence
After a thrilling five-match Test series over in England, the Indian national cricket team are now well into their final preparation for their next assignment, which comes in the form of the 2025 Asia Cup to be hosted by the United Arab Emirates.
The Men in Blue are the defending champions in this competition, having won the 16th edition last year, and given the wealth of talent Gautam Gambhir has at his disposal, selecting just 15 players was bound to be met with mixed reactions.
Nevertheless, after much debate and speculation, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) have made their final decision on who will travel to the Middle East for their title defence, which we now know will be led by Suryakumar Yadav.
One of the biggest calls the Indian selection committee had to make was around the inclusion of Test skipper Shubman Gill, who has not featured for the national team in the shortest format of the game since facing Sri Lanka in July last year.
Another massive call was related to Jasprit Bumrah's inclusion. The 31-year-old was only able to feature in three Test matches against England last month, owing to his workload management due to the injury he sustained while facing Australia at the start of this year.
Joining Bumrah in leading India’s pace attack is their highest-ranked T20 pace bowler, Arshdeep Singh, while the world's number four-ranked spin bowler Varun Chakaravarthy will be tasked with the bulk of the variation options.
India’s confirmed squad for the 2025 Asia Cup
India have named a very strong 15-man squad for their Asia Cup title defence, blending newer talents such as Sanju Samson and Chakaravarthy with the experience of Hardik Pandya and Bumrah. However, there are also a few notable exclusions.
Perhaps the most surprising omission from the India squad is Shreyas Iyer, who played a starring role during the team's 2025 Champions Trophy title run, finishing the competition as their leading run scorer with 243 runs in five innings before another sensational IPL campaign.
What was even more surprising was that Iyer did not even make the reserves list for the upcoming competition. Other notable exclusions included Yashasvi Jaiswal, Washington Sundar, and Prasidh Krishna. Here is India’s final squad for the 2025 Asia Cup:
India team: Suryakumar Yadav (captain), Shubman Gill (vice-captain), Abhishek Sharma, Tilak Verma, Hardik Pandya, Shivam Dube, Axar Patel, Jitesh Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah, Varun Chakaravarthy, Arshdeep Singh, Kuldeep Yadav, Sanju Samson, Harshit Rana, Rinku Singh
Reserves: Prasidh Krishna, Washington Sundar, Riyan Parag, Dhruv Jurel, Yashasvi Jaiswal
