He has named MS Dhoni as the captain.
With only a few days before India begins their Asia Cup 2025 campaign on September 10, former player Dinesh Karthik has named his all-time playing XI in the T20 format. Speaking on Cricbuzz, Karthik has excluded India’s Test captain Shubman Gill and star opener KL Rahul from his combination. Additionally, he has named veteran MS Dhoni as the captain and wicketkeeper-batter.
For the multi-national tournament, Gill will be seen as SKY’s deputy while Rahul continues to miss T20Is.
Karthik’s top-order consists of Abhishek Sharma, Rohit Sharma, and Virat Kohli. While the duo of RoKo is invaluable in every format of the game, Abhishek is a bold choice.
When compared to his teammate and friend from U-19 days, Shubhman Gill, Abhishek holds similar numbers, except for the striking rate. Gill has played 21 T20Is between 2023 and 2024, making 578 runs at an average of 30.42. In 16 outings, Abhishek has made 535 runs at an average of 33.43. While Gill’s strike rate is a decent 139.27, Abhishek’s runs have come at 193.84. The latter also has one more century to his name.
On the other hand, Rahul has 2,265 runs to his T20I quota from 68 innings. His average is slightly higher at 37.75, but his strike rate of 139.12 goes a bit against him. Thus, the experienced batter misses out, especially after being out of India’s T20I plans since 2022.
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The middle-order begins with current T20I captain Suryakumar Yadav. But he is followed by all-rounders Yuvraj Singh, Hardik Pandya, and keeper-batter MS Dhoni. The 2007 T20 World Cup winners, Yuvraj and Dhoni, have retired from all forms of cricket. While Dhoni led Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in the Indian Premier League (IPL) earlier this year, Yuvraj has been mostly out of action in the current scheme of things.
SKY is a hard-hitter as well as someone who can anchor the innings. He was named as the current captain in the shortest format following the retirements of Rohit and Kohli after the 2024 World Cup victory. Hardik defended 16 runs and took two wickets in the final over against South Africa, delivering yet another golden comeback to emerge as India’s hero.
The bowling department is packed neatly with Axar Patel and Varun Chakaravarthy handling spin duties, while Jasprit Bumrah and Bhuvneshwar Kumar. The first three bowlers are part of India’s T20I routine.
However, the Meerut-born pacer continues to be left out since his last T20I in 2022. He played 87 games in his decade-long T20I career, scalping 90 wickets at a ridiculously low average of 6.96. In Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s (RCB) title-winning IPL 2025 campaign, Bhuvi returned with 17 dismissals.
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, and Rinku Singh.
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