Asia Cup 2025 is just around the corner, and India has announced the squad for the tournament to be held in the United Arab Emirates starting from 9th September. The announcement has started the talk more around the unselected players rather than the selected ones, with Shreyas Iyer and Yashasvi Jaiswal being in the centre.
Chief selector Ajit Agarkar and T20 Captain Suryakumar Yadav announced the squad for the Asia Cup 2025 in Mumbai on 19 August 2025. Looking at the future, Shubman Gill has been named as the vice-captain of the team, and the rest of the team includes Abhishek Sharma, Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, Jasprit Bumrah, Jitesh Sharma, Shivam Dube, Arshdeep Singh, Sanju Samson, Harshit Rana, Tilak Varma, Rinku Singh, Varun Chakravarthy and Kuldeep Yadav. These selections raised many questions about those who did not get selected for the squad.
Shreyas Iyer has been a consistent performer in the last few leagues that he has been a part of, almost a golden run for him in domestic cricket. In 2024, he led Kolkata Knight Riders to victory in the Indian Premier League and captained Mumbai to victory in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy 2024. IPL 2025 was no less of a blockbuster performance from Shreyas Iyer, where he captained Punjab Kings to the Finals and scored 604 runs with an average of 50.33.
The performances were not only limited to white ball cricket, in red ball cricket, he was also an essential part of Mumbai’s victory in Ranji Trophy 2023-24, also registered a victory in Irani Cup 2024-25. When Ajit was asked about Iyer’s exclusion from the team, he replied, “Who can he replace? It’s not his fault, nor is it ours. He also added that at the moment, he’ll have to wait for his chance. This sparked a debate around the cricketing world.
The team that has been selected looks strong and promising. India is a strong contender to win the Asia Cup, and this Asia Cup can be a great competitive warm-up before the upcoming T20 World Cup. The gist of all this drama around the selection will only get a justification after the Asia Cup, because if the Indian team performs well, the tough calls by the selectors would be praised, but on the flip side, if the middle order fails to perform, and batting collapses will make Iyer not being selected chats bigger. It would be interesting to see how team dynamics will work, and Gill’s transition as vice captain in T20s will have so many eyes on him.
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