Rusty India enter Asia Cup with reputation to maintain

India – defending champions, let’s not forget, albeit when the tournament was played in 2023 in the ODI format – resume their international commitments after a 37-day break when they open their Asia Cup campaign against hosts UAE in Abu Dhabi on September 10, which officially marks their countdown to next year’s T20 World Cup. 

The Indian team was due to play white-ball matches in Bangladesh between the conclusion of the Test tour of England and the Asia Cup, but a postponement to 2026 has given most of the players a breather. And so, this unit goes into the Asia Cup with a mixed bag of exposure and form – and some fitness concerns – but still ranked No 1 in T20Is after a superb run of form in 2024 and then early 2025.

The captain, Suryakumar Yadav, has not batted in any sort of competitive match since June, when he turned out for Triumph Knights Mumbai North East in the Mumbai T20 League and managed 122 runs in four innings. In July, he flew to Germany for hernia surgery and only resumed batting in the nets this month. 

The recalled Shubman Gill, now vice-captain, has not played cricket since the Tests in England. Jasprit Bumrah has not played a T20I since the 2024 T20 World Cup final, and when he takes the ball against UAE it will mark 438 days since that appearance. 

Hardik Pandya hasn’t played since the IPL in May. Ditto for Abhishek Sharma, the No 1 ranked batsman in T20I cricket, Axar Patel and Shivam Dube. 

Kuldeep Yadav and Arshdeep Singh warmed the bench across five Tests in England and only have one Duleep Trophy match last week to show for; Arshdeep bowled 17 overs and took a wicket, whereas Kuldeep failed to strike across 32 overs against North East Zone.

Tilak Varma, one of India’s brightest prospects, had a stint in England with Hampshire in July-August. Harshit Rana played nine Delhi Premier League matches recently from which he claimed 12 wickets at 18.75 apiece. Varun Chakravarthy, central to India’s success at the Champions Trophy in Dubai earlier this year, has not played for two months since the Tamil Nadu Premier League concluded. The squad’s second wicketkeeper, Jitesh Sharma, last turned out in the Vidarbha Pro T20 League in mid-June. 

Sanju Samson has the most game time of late. Turning out in the Kerala Premier League, he smashed two centuries and as many fifties on his way to amassing 368 runs in just five innings while striking 30 sixes. Rinku Singh had a good run in the Uttar Pradesh Premier League for Meerut Mavericks, scoring 372 runs at a strike-rate of 178.85. And yet at the Asia Cup, both of these players could sit out on account of new team dynamics. 

Against this backdrop, then, the Indian team heads into the Asia Cup with the shadow of next year’s T20 World Cup looming. 

Suryakumar will turn 35 during the Asia Cup, and his batting slump remains a concern. Gill last played T20I cricket in July 2024 and now that he’s back, it seems certain that he will open, which means that Abhishek and Samson will be separated. Samson might have to drop back to the middle order, which would be unfair given his success after the management promoted him to open in 2024. 

With Bumrah back, India have a formidable new-ball pair in him and Arshdeep, who is India’s leading wicket-taker in T20Is and one shy of becoming the first India to 100. Chakravarthy is the team’s premier spinner, with Axar and Kuldeep as support. The tracks in the UAE will call for three slow men, so it remains to be seen how India pick their 11. 

Post the Asia Cup, India are scheduled to play 15 bilateral T20Is before the World Cup in February. Don’t expect big changes to the core group picked for this tournament, given the need for solidity and to reward the success that this team has had under SKY since he took over from Rohit Sharma in 2024. That said, there are plenty in this squad who need to hit the ground running. In T20 cricket, there’s very little room to catch up.