India will play Asia Cup 2025 on surfaces that favour batters
The Asia Cup 2025 offers a unique yet familiar challenge for the Indian team led by Suryakumar Yadav, who are chasing their next big trophy since the 2024 T20 World Cup.
The match venues Sheikh Zayed Cricket Stadium in Abu Dhabi and the Dubai International Stadium have been favourable to pacers and batters over the last 12 months producing runfests with only 55% of the wickets falling in 29 T20s across three competitions.
With the tournament now being in T20 format offers India a big opportunity to try a combination that has all-rounders to maintain its batting depth and at least two frontline spinners in the playing XI. Even if India go with three frontline pacers, it should prove to be a good choice for the world champions.
TBW
30/1
VSS
161/7
ROR
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BVB
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88/10
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1/0
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THCC
155/3
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153/1
THCC ROT-GELB Hamburg beat Masroor Sports Club by 7 wickets
THCC
146/5
KHTC
66/1
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22/0
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JJ
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CEC-A
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BNB
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Match start delayed due to rain
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SBW-W
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TRW-W
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NEP
144/7
MS-A
175/7
Melbourne Stars Academy beat Nepal by 31 runs
NTS
145/7
ACOM
105/10
Northern Territory Strike beat Australian Capital Territory by 40 runs
MR-A
31/2
PS
178/5
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PS
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BANA
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Even though the squad is yet to be announced, this the best five-bowler attack India can field in Asia Cup 2025 which is a long tournament with a team likely to play a maximum of seven matches over a course of three weeks.
The left-armer has the ability to swing the new ball both ways and is mighty effective against left-handers and has ample number of variations to get wickets at the death. He is coming off a superb Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 with Punjab Kings where he had an economy of 8 and claimed 21 wickets from 17 games. Also the fact that 76 of the 240 wickets at the two venues were claimed by left-arm seamers should give him confidence.
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To go with Harshit Rana in place of a much-evolved T20 bowler like Prasidh Krishna would be a bad move by the Indian team management. Krishna’s Purple Cap win in IPL 2025 with 25 wickets isn’t a one-time thing as he has bowled with a level of control that was missing in his T20 game before. The Karnataka pacer has consistently hit the full and good length areas in 15 matches this season while keeping the short ball as his stock delivery when needed. He has been excellent with his pace variations through the last four months.
There is no one like Hardik Pandya in the Indian team when it comes to stepping during difficult situations. Whenever the team needed him, Pandya stepped up with both the bat and ball in IPL 2025, claiming 14 wickets from 15 matches at an average of 24. When it comes to bowling, Pandya can bowl the most important overs and is not bogged down whenever he is hit for boundaries.
Varun’s return to international cricket after nearly four years of exile has been a fairytale which includes making massive improvements to his game. His haul of 14 wickets from five matches against England followed by nine wickets at the Dubai International Stadium in the Champions Trophy 2025 have come after he bowled his previous variations with an amount of precision that clearly lacked during the 2021 T20 World Cup in the UAE. Despite enduring a middling IPL 2025 with Kolkata Knight Riders, Varun still was able to claim 17 wickets from 13 matches at an economy of 7.6 which shows how good he has been all year.
The current Indian T20I vice-captain might not have impressive numbers to boast, but his contributions in terms of getting key wickets at crucial stages of the game is worth weight in gold for India. However, the Asia Cup 2025 could be a tournament where Axar could add more numbers to his impressive resume as Dubai and Abu Dhabi surfaces have yielded 48 wickets in the last 29 matches to left-arm spinners which is a massive 60% of the total wickets claimed by spinners. Among the top-five left-arm spinners at these spinners have been finger spinners who rely on drift over turn which is pretty much in line with Axar’s biggest strength.
The left-armer has been the backbone of the Indian bowling attack for the past few years and has not slowed down in the T20 format. Despite having a calm season by his standards, the wrist-spinner has 15 wickets to his name from 14 matches in IPL 2025 at an economy of just 7.07 which is a great assurance for India going into the Asia Cup.
