Gill Surprisingly Elevated As Vice-Captain As BCCI Names Asia Cup Squad
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) announced India's squad for the Asia Cup 2025 on Tuesday, with Suryakumar Yadav continuing as captain. Surprisingly, Shubman Gill was elevated as the team's vice-captain in the shortest format, replacing Axar Patel. The selection meeting was held at the BCCI headquarters in Mumbai, though a long delay was witnessed due to the late arrival of a few members because of extreme weather conditions in the city. There was no place for ShreyasIyer and Yashasvi Jaiswal in the team despite their top performances in the shortest format.
Shubman Gill's promotion as the team's vice-captain poses a unique challenge for head coach Gautam Gambhir and skipper Suryakumar Yadav as the batter will be expected to be a certain pick in the playing XI. In such a case, there arrives a big question mark over Sanju Samson's batting position.
After the T20 World Cup 2024, Samson and Abhishek Sharma opened for India in T20Is and did very well. But now, Gill could be seen opening alongside Abhishek at the top, pushing Sanju to the No. 3 position, which was occupied by Tilak Varma earlier.
Along with the 15-member team, a total of 5 reserve players were also picked for the Asia Cup, keeping the bench ready in case of injuries or other issues.
Quite surprisingly, Shreyas Iyer wasn't picked even among the 5-member reserve team that the BCCI selection committee cheif Ajit Agarkar named during the press conference. Iyer was backed by many former India stars, including Ravichandran Ashwin, to feature in the playing XI at the Asia Cup. But, he doesn't even feature in the top 20 for the selection committee.
India's Asia Cup 2025 Squad: Surya Kumar Yadav (C), Shubman Gill (VC), Abhishek Sharma, Tilak Varma, Hardik Pandya, Shivam Dube, Axar Patel, Jitesh Sharma (WK), Jasprit Bumrah, Arshdeep Singh, Varun Chakaravarthy, Kuldeep Yadav, Sanju Samson (WK), Harshit Rana, Rinku Singh
Reserve players: Prasidh Krishna, Washington Sundar, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Riyan Parag and Dhruv Jurel
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