Chaos At The Opening Slot: 3 Common Concerns For India And Pakistan For Asia Cup 2025

Suryakumar Yadav and Salman Ali Agha - (Source: AFP)

Asia Cup 2025 begins on September 9 in the UAE, with Dubai and Abu Dhabi being the two host cities. Eight teams will take part for the first time ever, but eyes will be on two heavyweights - India and Pakistan. 

For the upcoming event, both Pakistan and India have named a relatively new team, which is yet to undergo a litmus Test. Meanwhile, this article will shed light on the common concerns for both teams for the Asia Cup 2025. 

India And Pakistan Squad For Asia Cup 2025

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.

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.

Key Concerns For India And Pakistan For Asia Cup 2025

1. Chaos For The Opening Slot

One key area of concern or a happy headache is that both teams are filled with openers. India and Pakistan are scratching their head to fix their opening slot and still there is no clarity. 

India

Talking about India, the Men in Blue have Abhishek Sharma, Sanju Samson, and Shubman Gill and the management is yet to fixate the openers. Up until now, Sanju and Abhishek formed the opening pair and did well.

However, the selectors included Gill into the Asia Cup squad and handed him the vice-captaincy, which indicated his presence in the playing XI for the whole tournament. Thus, it is to be seen whether India will drop Samson or demote his batting order. Another big question is whether Abhishek Sharma and Gill gel together as they have little experience opening together for India. 

Nonetheless, the move to include Gill in the Asia Cup squad and disrupt the opening combination can prove to be a disastrous move. 

For Pakistan

For Pakistan, they have Fakhar Zaman, Saim Ayub, Hasan Nawaz, Sahibzada Farhan, and Mohammad Haris, who all can open the innings. Thus, the Men in Green have five options for the opening slot, which isn't ideal going into a tournament as it indicates lack of plans and roadmap.

Talking about 2025,  Pakistan played four T20I series and used different openers in every series. They started with Hasan Nawaz and Mohammad Haris during New Zealand tour, eventually shifting to Saim Ayub and Sahibzada Farhan for the ongoing Tri-series. Here is the list of Pakistan openers this year.

Thus, Pakistan too would be entering the Asia Cup with an untested opening pair, unlike the ones they had in the past, which were consistent and constant for a long time.s

2. New Skipper And First Major Tournament

Another key concern for both teams is they have new T20I skippers and Asia Cup 2025 will be their first major tournament. Notably, the 2026 T20 World Cup commence in February-March window and all the teams including India and Pakistan are looking for a solid team.

India

The Men in Blue appointed Suryakumar Yadav as T20I captain in July 2024 and pushed him to lead India in 2026 T20 World Cup. However, Asia Cup will be SKY's first major event as captain and the 34-year-old will feel the pressure of risking leadership chance for World Cup in case of subpar performance.

Further, SKY's average with the bat since becoming captain has not been well, which is another major concern for Team India.

Pakistan

For Pakistan, same is for Salman Ali Agha, who was recently handed the captaincy after Mohammad Rizwan was dropped from the scheme of things in T20I cricket. Talking about Agha, he too is most likely to lead Pakistan in T20 World Cup 2026, which is why he needs to impress the selectors and the PCB with a good performance with the bat in Asia Cup.

Similar to Suryakumar Yadav, Agha's stats as a batter since donning the captain's hat hasn't been well, which is an added pressure in itself if the skipper isn't heads and shoulders above the rest. 

3. No Veteran Batters For Experience

For India, they too are playing their first major multi-national event with senior stars like Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, and Ravindra Jadeja. The trio had announced their T20i retirement following the World Cup, but India will miss their experience and constant on-field guidance.

Similarly for Pakistan, they are without Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan. Thus the Men in Green too would lack batters who have played several tournaments before and knows how to handle the pressure. 

The only difference being that the veteran stars from India retired, while the PCB didn't deem the Pakistan star players right to be fit into T20I setup.

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