T20 Asia Cup 2025 - Dubai 09/09/2025 to 29/09/2025 - Page 3

NewsShubman Gill returns to India's T20I squad as vice-captain for Asia Cup

No place for Yashasvi Jaiswal or Shreyas Iyer in 15-member squad

ESPNcricinfo staff19-Aug-2025 •

Shubman Gill returns to India's T20I squad as vice-captain •

Shubman Gill has made a comeback to India's T20I squad for the Asia Cup, replacing Axar Patel as vice-captain.

Shreyas Iyer, who scored 604 runs at a strike rate of 175 in IPL 2025 once again unlucky

T20 World Cup," Suryakumar said. "We have played three-four bilateral series. It's a good tournament to test ourselves. After this, there are a lot of T20s, close to 20-22 T20s in total before we play our first game in the [2026] World Cup, so I think the journey starts from the Asia Cup."

India's squad for the Asia Cup

1 Suryakumar Yadav (capt), 2 Shubman Gill (vc), 3 Hardik Pandya, 4 Arshdeep Singh, 5 Abhishek Sharma, 6 Tilak Varma, 7 Shivam Dube , 8 Axar Patel, 9 Jitesh Sharma, 10 Jasprit Bumrah, 11 Varun Chakravarthy , 12 Kuldeep Yadav, 13 Harshit Rana, 14 Rinku Singh, 15 Sanju Samson

Reserve players: Prasidh Krishna, Washington Sundar, Riyan Parag, Dhruv Jurel, Yashasvi Jaiswal

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The squad will be led by Suryakumar as captain, with Shubman ..

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India announced their squad for the T20 Asia Cup on Tuesday, August 19. Shubman Gill's return as the vice-captain was the biggest headline as the Indian team brought the Test skipper back in the squad as an opening option.

The Asia Cup acts as a dress rehearsal for the T20 World Cup 2026, with Asian teams looking to put their best foot forward in the regional tournament, which gets underway on September 9.

There have been many players who have made their way to the T20 Asia Cup squad for the first time and are in line to play the tournament. As many as 10 players from the 15-member main squad are the ones who have not previously played the T20 format of the regional tournament, with vice-captain Gill being among those.

Apart from Gill, the others who have been picked for the first time in the T20 format of the tournament are Abhishek Sharma, Tilak Varma, Shivam Dube, Jitesh Sharma (WK), Varun Chakaravarthy, Kuldeep Yadav, Sanju Samson (WK), Harshit Rana and Rinku Singh.

Five players who have played the T20 Asia Cup before

There are only five players from the current squad who have featured in the T20 format of the tournament. Current T20I captain Suryakumar Yadav, Axar Patel, Hardik Pandya and Arshdeep Singh were part of the Indian team for the 2022 Asia Cup. Notably, Jasprit Bumrah was part of the 2016 edition of the T20 Asia Cup.

The Asia Cup will be played from September 9 onwards. India are placed in Group A alongside Pakistan, UAE and Oman.

India squad for Asia Cup 2025: 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

Stand-bys for Asia Cup: Prasidh Krishna, Washington Sundar, Riyan Parag, Dhruv Jurel, Yashasvi Jaiswal.

There is some serious competition for India's Asia Cup 2025 squad, meaning that several high-profile stars may miss out. Test captain Shubman Gill is reportedly unlikely to make the cut, while other stars like Shreyas Iyer may also not make it to the final 15. However, former India spinner Harbhajan Singh has included both Gill and Iyer in his 15-man squad for the Asia Cup. Harbhajan has also made some bold calls, leaving out three regular members of India's T20I setup.

Harbhajan opted to pick Rishabh Pant and KL Rahul as his two wicket-keeper batters. This meant that he didn't go with Sanju Samson, who has been a consistent opener for India over the past year in T20Is.

Harbhajan also, perhaps surprisingly, left out mystery spinner Varun Chakravarthy from his team.

Instead, Harbhajan went for Kuldeep Yadav as his main spinner, as well as all-rounders Axar Patel and Washington Sundar as his other spin-bowling options.

Harbhajan stated that the inclusion of Shubman Gill is a must, and that his capabilities in T20Is should not be underestimated.

"Yes, we do have players like Abhishek Sharma, Suryakumar Yadav, and Tilak Varma, but you cannot undermine or underestimate Shubman Gill. He is a very talented batter who can adapt to any format. He is an all-format player," Harbhajan stated, in an interview with Times of India.

"In my opinion, he can play T20s and even dominate the format. We as fans are used to seeing fours and sixes every ball, but you also need batters who can play long innings and rescue the team when required," Harbhajan added.

The former India spinner, who was part of India's T20 World Cup 2007-winning squad, also put in a rogue shout. Harbhajan left out Tilak Varma, the No. 2-ranked batter in the ICC T20I rankings.

In his place, Harbhajan picked Shreyas Iyer, and even found place for all-rounder Riyan Parag in his 15.

India's hero at The Oval, Mohammed Siraj, is reportedly expected to miss out of the 15-man squad, with Prasidh Krishna and Harshit Rana ahead of him in the pecking order. However, Harbhajan included Siraj.

Harbhajan Singh's full 15-man Asia Cup 2025 squad: Suryakumar Yadav (captain), Abhishek Sharma, Shubman Gill, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant, KL Rahul, Hardik Pandya, Riyan Parag, Washington Sundar, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Arshdeep Singh, Mohammed Siraj.

The Asia Cup 2025 begins on September 9. India begin their campaign against the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on September 10. The final is on September 28.

Friends, share your views on the squad picked up for this long awaiting special event.

A few prominent players were left out, and a few got a place despite their failure in recent cricket events.

Share your views here--

Frankly speaking I feel bad for iyer

Now it seems like they've some grudge against him

Originally posted by: Prizi

Frankly speaking I feel bad for iyer

Now it seems like they've some grudge against him

Originally posted by: Viswasruti

Yes, it is a surprise decision, not including him is not correct.

They didn't even pick him in 20 squad

I don't know if any of you knew or not but there was some problem with Shreyes's attitude towards BCCI's person even during the last trophy while receiving medal Iyer's arrogance was visible to Binni

Originally posted by: SalluTheUllu

I don't know if any of you knew or not but there was some problem with Shreyes's attitude towards BCCI's person even during the last trophy while receiving medal Iyer's arrogance was visible to Binni