India announces cricket squad for Asia Cup 2025

India’s Asia Cup 2025 squad has been announced by BCCI chief selector Ajit Agarkar and T20 captain SuryaKumar Yadav. After all the discussions, BCCI has named Shubman Gill as their vice-captain and star pacer Jasprit Bumrah is also part of the squad.

Sanju Samson named as the wicket-keeper of the team. However, there was no place for Shreyas Iyer and Yashasvi Jaiswal. Rinku Singh was struggling due to the poor performance in the IPL found a place in the squad.

Young talent Tilak Verma and Abhishek Verma find a place for themselves in the squad. Kuldeep Yadav and Varun Chakaravarthy will handle the spin attack in the Asia Cup 2025.

Team India’s squad:

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

BCCI bans questions

An India vs Pakistan cricket match: that’s the objective behind hosting the Asia Cup for the last 20 years or so. The broadcasters yearn for the revenue that’s generated for India’s matches, especially when Pakistan is the opponent; ratings and revenue go through the roof.

Filling a 132,000-capacity stadium, Narendra Modi Stadium, isn’t difficult. People can’t wait to see cricket’s biggest rivalry. The fact that an India vs Pakistan match happens only at two events, the Asia Cup and ICC tournaments, makes it even more special.

But this time, things are a bit different. In May, tensions between the two nations rose. In the aftermath of the Pahalgam attack, the Indian public was adamant about cutting all ties with Pakistan. This included cricket. But the Indian government was fine with India and Pakistan playing sports at international events.

However, the public wasn’t happy. Such was the scrutiny that two legends cricket matches between India and Pakistan, which were being played in England, were cancelled. But not only will the Asia Cup 2025 go ahead, there’s almost a certainty of two India vs Pakistan matches happening.

On Tuesday, India announced their squad for the Asia Cup. Towards the end of the press conference held at the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) headquarters, a question was asked about how India will approach the match against Pakistan, given what’s transpired in the last couple of months.

Before India T20I captain Suryakumar Yadav or chief selector Ajit Agarkar could answer, the question was dismissed. The media manager stated that only questions regarding the team selection would be addressed. If the Indian government doesn’t have any issues allowing Team India to play Pakistan, why does BCCI have an issue with addressing the question?

In contrast, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) had no qualms about answering a question relating to India and Pakistan when they announced their squad for the Asia Cup just two days ago.

“Everyone knows the situation surrounding the two countries (India and Pakistan). But we don’t need to put extra pressure on them (players),” Aaqib Javed, Pakistan’s high-performance director, had said.

Perhaps the BCCI was worried about what Suryakumar or Agarkar would say and that it might lead to backlash. Whatever the reasoning was, it certainly doesn’t look good.