Asia Cup begins todya with Afghanistan-Hong Kong clash, India to begin campaign against UAE

DUBAI: The 2025 edition of the Asia Cup, in T20I format, will start from Tuesday with the campaign opener between a rising Afghanistan side and Hong Kong at Abu Dhabi. Team India is scheduled to start their campaign the next day against hosts UAE in Dubai.

Sri Lanka, who last won the T20I edition of the Asia Cup back in 2022 under the captaincy of Dasun Shanaka, will be putting up their title up for defence against Team India, the current T20 World Cup champions who are captained by Suryakumar Yadav, Salman Agha-led Pakistan, who have reinvented their T20I batting with the injection of fresh, new and hard-hitting blood and and dark horse contenders Afghanistan captained by Rashid Khan, who reached the semifinals of T20 WC last year. Bangladesh, captained by Litton Das, is not a team to be underestimated either.

Other non-Test playing sides, UAE, Oman and Hong Kong, would be aiming to spring up a few surprises and cause a few upsets, which would add further to the theatre, the cinema, which T20 cricket brings thanks to its short, high-pace and unpredictable nature.

What is India’s winning formula for the Asia Cup

Bowling coach Morne Morkel explains, here#AsiaCup2025 #India pic.twitter.com/JJomcQnSFn

— Cricbuzz (@cricbuzz) September 8, 2025

India is a part of Group A, alongside arch-rivals Pakistan, who they will play on October 14, Oman and the UAE. Pool B consists of Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Hong Kong and Bangladesh. Team India’s final group stage clash will be against Oman on September 19.

The Super Four stage of the tournament will kickstart from September 20 onwards. Each team, top-two from each group will be playing three games in Dubai to earn a spot in the title clash, scheduled for September 28.

Ahead of the Team India’s campaign opener against UAE scheduled for Wednesday, Indian bowling coach Morne Morkel said that the decision about the bowling combination will be taken after having a look at the wicket. “We need to go and look at the wicket. I think when the Champions Trophy was played at that time, there was a lot of cricket on the surfaces here and they looked a little bit tired”.

“So again, tonight we will have a first look at the surface, and I believe there is quite a bit of grass covering on the square. So we will have a good idea going into the first game in terms of what is sort of a better way to go, but in terms of planning at the moment, we’re covering all bases, and then we will make a decision on the match day”, he added.

Speaking about Kuldeep, who bowled 32 overs in Central Zone’s Duleep Trophy quarterfinal but went wicketless and also missed out playing chances in England in favour of spin bowling all-rounders Ravindra Jadeja and Washington Sundar, Morkel was full of praise for the spinner with 69 wickets in 40 T20Is at an average of 14.07.

“I think he is a very professional athlete. His attitude since England, where he received hardly any game time, he is still the guy who put the overs in. And for me, Kuldeep, like I said, he has bowled a lot of overs in his career. He knows what to do to get himself ready for T20 cricket, white-ball cricket. And like I said, we can control only what we can control now, and that is when we do train now and when we have our sessions, that it is focused, that there is a purpose behind it, and we have goals. We set those goals out and from there, it is up to them to go out and lead with the ball”, he concluded.

He emphasised that all-rounders need to put in hard work to show their skills in both departments, highlighting their crucial role in the team’s success. “For me, it’s always important to see Shivam [Shivam Dube] like a guy that can bowl four overs. I’m always pushing for all-rounders or their guys to work hard on both skills. Sometimes guys can get a little bit naughty in practice or focus just on one. Here in this environment, we want to leave no stone unturned. On the day, we’re going to need somebody to do the work for us”, Morkel told the media.

Morkel also stressed the importance of developing part-time bowlers, which gives them so many more options in terms of combinations for selection in the playing 11. “Yes, we will have our front-line guys who can attack. But if we can keep on developing guys, part-time guys to do a job, it gives us so many more options in terms of combinations for selection and stuff like that. So that’s important that once guys have those sort of skills, to keep on working on that daily and improve and get better”, he added.

Morkel also reflected on India having played less T20I cricket recently (with the last T20I dating back to February against England) but expressed confidence that the team will be ready to perform well in the Asia Cup. He believes the players will rise to the occasion and put on a solid show for the team.

“I think that it’s a good point. For us, it’s just making sure when we do the work in our training, we step it up, make sure we train at a certain intensity. Once you put the Indian shirt on, from there, it’s about getting ready for match battle. I am pretty sure once they step over the line, these guys will be ready to go and play and put on a solid performance for the team,” he concluded.

All Asia Cup squads:

Afghanistan: Rashid Khan (c), Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Ibrahim Zadran, Darwish Rasooli, Sediqullah Atal, Azmatullah Omarzai, Karim Janat, Mohammad Nabi, Gulbadin Naib, Sharafuddin Ashraf, Mohammad Ishaq, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Allah Ghazanfar, Noor Ahmad, Farid Malik, Naveen-ul-Haq, Fazalhaq Farooqi

Bangladesh: Litton Das (c), Tanzid Hasan, Parvez Hossain Emon, Saif Hassan, Tawhid Hridoy, Jaker Ali Anik, Shamim Hossain, Quazi Nurul Hasan Sohan, Shak Mahedi Hasan, Rishad Hossain, Nasum Ahmed, Mustafizur Rahman, Tanzim Hasan Sakib, Taskin Ahmed, Shoriful Islam, Shaif Uddin

Hong Kong: Yasim Murtaza (c), Babar Hayat, Zeeshan Ali, Niazakat Khan Mohammad, Nasrulla Rana, Martin Coetzee, Anshuman Rath, Kalhan Marc Challu, Ayush Shukla, Mohammad Aizaz Khan, Ateeq ul Rehman Iqbal, Kinchit Shah, Ali Hassan, Shahid Wasif, Ghazanfar Mohammad, Mohammad Waheed, Ehsan Khan

India: Suryakumar Yadav (c), Shubman Gill, Abhishek Sharma, Tilak Varma, Hardik Pandya, Shivam Dube, Jitesh Sharma, Axar Patel, Jasprit Bumrah, Varun Chakaravarthy, Arshdeep Singh, Kuldeep Yadav, Sanju Samson, Harshit Rana, Rinku Singh.

Oman: Jatinder Singh (c), Hammad Mirza, Vinayak Shukla, Sufyan Yousuf, Ashish Odedera, Aamir Kaleem, Mohammed Nadeem, Sufyan Mehmood, Aryan Bisht, Karan Sonavale, Zikriya Islam, Hassnain Ali Shah, Faisal Shah, Muhammed Imran, Nadeem Khan, Shakeel Ahmad, Samay Shrivastava.

Pakistan: Salman Ali Agha (c), Abrar Ahmed, Faheem Ashraf, Fakhar Zaman, Haris Rauf, Hasan Ali, Hasan Nawaz, Hussain Talat, Khushdil Shah, Mohammad Haris, Mohammad Nawaz, Mohammad Waseem Jnr, Sahibzada Farhan, Saim Ayub, Salman Mirza, Shaheen Afridi, Sufyan Moqim.

Sri Lanka: Charith Asalanka (c), Pathum Nissanka, Kusal Mendis, Kusal Perera, Nuwanidu Fernando, Kamindu Mendis, Kamil Mishara, Dasun Shanaka, Wanindu Hasaranga, Dunith Wellalage, Chamika Karunaratne, Maheesh Theekshana, Dushmantha Chameera, Binura Fernando, Nuwan Thushara, Matheesha Pathirana.

United Arab Emirates: Muhammad Waseem (c), Alishan Sharafu, Aryansh Sharma, Asif Khan, Dhruv Parashar, Ethan D’Souza, Haider Ali, Harshit Kaushik, Junaid Siddique, Matiullah Khan, Muhammad Farooq, Muhammad Jawadullah, Muhammad Zohaib, Rahul Chopra, Rohid Khan, Simranjeet Singh, Saghir Khan. (ANI)