Talent-stacked India eye victorious start in Asia Cup 2025 against UAE

Team India, who've been labelled as the "favourites" for the Asia Cup 2025, will be keen to get off to a strong start when they face off against UAE in both the teams' opening encounters of the competition. With all permutations and combinations on the table, it is going to be interesting to see how the Men in Blue line up for the upcoming challenge.

Clubbed alongside Pakistan, UAE and Oman in Group A of the Asia Cup, India will be hopeful of racking up an early win before they clash with their arch-rivals Pakistan on Sunday.

India will be returning to cricket’s fastest lane after a staggering wait of nine months as they played their last T20I against England back in February. On the back of learnings from that series and observations from IPL 2025, Indian head coach Gautam Gambhir and captain Suryakumar Yadav will have their task cut out in terms of fielding the best XI, given the wealth of riches that the squad boasts of in terms of talent.

Pitch overview:

The surface at the Dubai International Stadium has still been a mystery to the cricket observers. With India practicing at the ICC Academy before heading to the venue to get a feel of the conditions, it is still not clear how the surface might play out. As per reports, there are traces of green in the track but not to an extent where it can be a decisive factor.

However, Gambhir and his men would want to be ready for every possible outcome and fettle. A total of 110 T20 matches have been played at the venue with the average score being on the lower side. The average score batting first has been 139 while the number chasing has been 123. Also, with the bigger boundaries coming into play, spinners could be expected to play a vital role.

X-Factors for India:

·      Abhishek Sharma’s hard-hitting up front might be a massive game-changer as he can run away with the clash if he conjures up a quick blast in the powerplay.

·      Jasprit Bumrah’s key spells in the death can prove to be a difference maker.

Match Details:

Match: India vs UAE, Asia Cup 2025

Venue: Dubai International Stadium

Date: 10th September, 2025

Time: 8:00 PM IST

Head-to-head:

Matches played: 1

India: 1

UAE: 0

Squads:

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.

UAE:

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