Four Indians, One Pakistani Player In Best XI Of Asia Cup 2025 Picked By Former Cricketers

Former India players Irfan Pathan, Abhishek Nayar and Saba Karim, also an ex-chief selector of national team, picked the best XI of Asia Cup 2025. In an interesting move, all of them were restricted to picking a maximum of four Indian players in the list. Abhishek Sharma, Suryakumar Yadav, Kuldeep Yadav and Jasprit Bumrah are the stars from India who made a cut into the experts' XI for the tournament. They also picked one Pakistan player in the squad and he was left-arm pacer Shaheen Afridi.

Have a look at the best XI of Asia Cup 2025 picked by the former India stars -

Abhishek Sharma, Litton Das (wk), Suryakumar Yadav, Towhid Hridoy, Mohammad Nabi, Dasun Shanaka, Azmatullah Omarzai, Shaheeh Afridi, Wanindu Hasaranga, Kuldeep Yadav, and Jasprit Bumrah.

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India and Pakistan are set to face each other in the final of Asia Cup 2025 on Sunday. India qualified for the summit clash with two consecutive victories in the Super Four stage, while Pakistan beat Bangladesh in a thrilling contest to set up a clash with their arch-rivals.

A resolute Pakistan fought back to defeat Bangladesh by 11 runs on Thursday. Bangladesh put up an excellent performance with the ball, particularly in the first 10 overs, leaving Pakistan tottering at 49 for 5 at one stage. Crucial cameos by Mohammad Haris (31), Mohammad Nawaz (25) and Shaheen Afridi (19) saw Pakistan recover to 135 for 8 in 20 overs. For Bangladesh, comeback pacer Taskin Ahmed was the pick of the bowlers with three wickets to his name.

Bangladesh seemed favourites at the innings break but Pakistan produced a superb turnaround with terrific piece of bowling. Their relentless effort saw Bangladesh eventually get restricted to 124 for 9 and lose the game by a narrow margin.

For the first time in the history of the Asia Cup, India and Pakistan are set to square off in the final. Be it the ODI format of T20, the two neighbouring countries have never come across each other in the tournament's summit clash. For the record, India have won the Asia Cup title on most occasions, with 8 trophies to their name, while Pakistan sit third in the list with just two final-winning performances. Despite both teams winning 10 titles combined, they never had the opportunity to face each other in the title showdown.

Topics mentioned in this article

Cricket India Cricket Team Pakistan Cricket Team Asia Cup 2025 Suryakumar Yadav Abhishek Sharma Kuldeep Yadav Jasprit Bumrah Syed Saba Karim Irfan Pathan Abhishek Nayar Shaheen Afridi