India Aims for Strong Start Against UAE in Asia Cup 2025 Opener

India’s preparation for the Asia Cup has been relatively subdued, despite the upcoming T20 World Cup on home soil in February-March next year. While neighboring countries such as Pakistan and Bangladesh have packed in 19 and 15 T20 matches, respectively, since March’s Champions Trophy, India has only participated in five T20 games in 2025. By contrast, Sri Lanka has engaged in six T20 matches in the last two months.

Out of India’s 15-member squad, 12 last played internationally during February-March’s T20Is against England and the Champions Trophy. This leaves only Shubman Gill and Jasprit Bumrah as the more recently active players, though both have been away from T20 games for over a year. Jitesh Sharma, on the other hand, is making a return after last playing for the national team in January 2024.

Despite these hurdles, India remains a strong contender for the Asia Cup title. Their campaign starts with a match against the host nation, the UAE, which provides a platform for Suryakumar Yadav’s squad to adapt to the T20 format. The team arrived on Thursday and has since conducted three practice sessions amidst Dubai’s intense heat, with temperatures reaching 42-52°C in the afternoon.

In addition to limited game time and extreme weather, India’s team composition is incorporating new dynamics. Gill’s role as vice-captain virtually guarantees him a spot in the lineup, threatening Sanju Samson’s position as the opener next to Abhishek Sharma. Despite his impressive performance with 487 runs and a strike rate of 171.47 since last year’s T20 World Cup, Samson seems at risk due to these changes.

Training hints suggest Samson might even lose the wicketkeeper position to Jitesh Sharma, who has had a resurgence with Royal Challengers Bengaluru in the IPL’s later stages this year. Suryakumar attempted to alleviate concerns about Samson’s role, playfully addressing the large local Kerala community’s interest in their homegrown star.

The Dubai International Cricket Stadium pitch presents further complexities. During India’s Champions Trophy success earlier, the team leveraged seamers Mohammed Shami and Harshit Rana, with Kuldeep Yadav as the main spinner initially. Varun Chakaravarthy joined forces with Kuldeep in subsequent matches, focusing on spin with Hardik Pandya and Shami handling pace duties sans additional seamers.

Unexpectedly green conditions on match eve suggest India might opt for a sole-spinner strategy. Arshdeep Singh’s recent intensive practice implies his potential selection as Bumrah’s seam partner might affect either the batting depth or the number of spinners.

Ahead of the UAE match, it appears intriguing that Varun might be preferred over Kuldeep if India deploys a single spin option.

Despite the breathing room provided by a match against UAE, India must avoid excessive lineup experimentation, given historical close calls against teams like Afghanistan and Hong Kong in past tournaments. The UAE squad features strong performances recently, challenging Afghanistan and Pakistan in the Sharjah tri-series and overturning Bangladesh 2-1 in a T20 series in May.

India’s track record in UAE-hosted T20 tournaments hasn’t been promising, with early exits in the 2021 World Cup and the 2022 Asia Cup – a trend Suryakumar aims to reverse as captain in his first multi-team event. With hot and humid conditions likely, and statistics since 2021 favoring the chasing team in UAE T20Is by 20 to 11, the coin toss could play a significant role.