Asia Cup 2025 Team India Confirmed Best Playing 11 – Shubman Gill as Opener

With Shubman Gill set to open alongside Abhishek Sharma, explore Team India strongest predicted playing 11 for the Asia Cup 2025 in the UAE.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on August 19 announced the official squad for Team India for the upcoming Asia Cup 2025. While the overall squad seems to be in line with the expectations, two big deserving names are missing from the squad, and those are Yashasvi Jaiswal and Shreyas Iyer. While Jaiswal is one of the best white-ball players in India currently, Shreyas has upped his game significantly to be ignored by the selectors. 

With these two key players missing, the biggest highlight of the squad was the selection of Shubman Gill as the primary opener of the squad, aside from being appointed as the Vice-captain of the side. Gill, who was not even a part of the T20 World Cup 2024, and has hardly played T20I cricket since then, has suddenly turned into the poster boy of the team, and is already projected as the leader and player in all 3 formats. 

With Shubman Gill in the side, the Indian team will see a few changes in their usual playing 11 that they had been playing in the last 1 year. The Asia Cup 2025 is scheduled from September 9 to 28, and will be played in the UAE. The Indian team will play Pakistan for at least two matches, considering the schedule. With hardly a few weeks left for the tournament kick-off, let’s evaluate the current squad list for Team India, and find out what the strongest playing 11 that India can play.  

Asia Cup 2025 Team India Official Squad and Players List

Batters: Rinku Singh, Shubman Gill, Suryakumar Yadav (c) & Tilak Varma

WKs: Jitesh Sharma & Sanju Samson

All-rounders: Abhishek Sharma, Axar Patel, Hardik Pandya & Shivam Dube

Bowlers: Arshdeep Singh, Harshit Rana, Jasprit Bumrah, Kuldeep Yadav & Varun Chakravarthy

As we can see from the official squad above, the Indian team has all the bases covered, and has quality written all over it. But the main dilemma that the team will face is whether to strengthen the batting, or go full attacking mode with 4 frontline bowlers. For the last few years, Team India have been giving a lot of emphasis on batting depth. But this was the case when the Indian team didn’t have quality bowling options. However, come 2025, India have a strong squad, and they can be more attacking with their approach, and can afford to play 4 frontline bowlers. But will they is the question? 

Before we get into the Batting depth vs Bowling Strength debate, let’s see what the opening combinations look like for the Indian team. When BCCI announced the Indian team, they categorically said Shubman Gill is the designated Vice Captain in the team. If that’s the case, there is no iota of a doubt that Shubman Gill will open the innings alongside Abhishek Sharma. Given the current situation, it’s quite unfortunate for Sanju Samson as he won’t get a chance to open the innings. So, with the opening combination locked, the next main question is who between Sanju Samson and Tilak Varma makes the cut. 

Sanju Samson vs Tilak Varma for Number 3 Spot

This will be another interesting choice for the Indian team as Sanju Samson, who primarily opened for Team India, and did well too, will be competing against Tilak Varma, who played a solid role in the number 3 position. There is no question that Sanju Samson has done well in T20Is off-late, but that was mostly as an opener. With Tilak at 3, India get the flexibility of promoting SKY at 3. But if Sanju Samson plays, he will lock the position at 3, and this also means India will have to play SKY at 4 forcefully. But if Tilak plays at 3, Axar can play at 5 as a floater, and Hardik and Jitesh at 6 and 7 bring solid stability to the lower-order. 

So, with a strong focus on playing 4 wicket-taking bowlers, India will be better off playing Jitesh Sharma above Sanju Samson, given we get a strong batter for the number 7 position. This will not only give India a good balance, but will also see India playing players in their regular positions. If not, India will have to play Samson and SKY at 3 or 4, and Rinku or Dube will have to play at 5 with Hardik and Axar following them. A better utilisation of the team will be the one where India play 4 frontline bowlers, Axar as a floater, and Jitesh as a finisher. 

Strong Bowling Lineup for Asia Cup 2025

Coming to the strongest bowling lineup, there should be no doubt that India should play all four quality bowlers, Jasprit Bumrah, Arshdeep Singh, Varun Chakravarthy, and Kuldeep Yadav. It’s a dream for any team to have such quality bowling options, and even if one doesn’t play, it’s a disadvantage. So, forgetting the focus on batting depth for the time being, India should, in totality, find a way to play all these four bowlers. If they decide not to play Kuldeep in lieu of batting depth, India can compromise those 2-3 crucial overs in search of 10-15 runs by the lower-order. 

Asia Cup 2025 Team India Strongest Playing 11

1. Shubman Gill
2. Abhishek Sharma
3. Tilak Varma
4. Suryakumar Yadav (c)
5. Axar Patel
6. Hardik Pandya
7. Jitesh Sharma (wk)
8. Kuldeep Yadav
9. Arshdeep Singh
10. Jasprit Bumrah
11. Varun Chakravarthy

So, that’s about the Asia Cup 2025 Team India’s best playing 11 for Team India. Overall, India should focus on playing four quality bowlers rather than adding batting depth. When you have quality bowlers, you can’t afford to leave them out in search of 10-15 runs as a defensive technique. However, knowing how Gautam Gambhir emphasises a lot of batting depth, expect India to play Rinku Singh at 5, Shivam Dube as a floater at 6, Hardik Pandya and Axar Patel following them. In this scenario, Kuldeep Yadav could unfortunately miss out. 

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