Irfan Pathan picked his strongest India XI for the upcoming Asia Cup, starting September 9 in the United Arab Emirates. The Suryakumar Yadav-led side will open their campaign against the UAE a day later in Dubai. The BCCI picked a strong 15-man squad for the tournament last month, and it had Test skipper Shubman Gill named as vice-captain. Speaking on his YouTube channel, Irfan started off by snubbing Sanju Samson as one of the openers. He instead went for the combination of Gill and Abhishek Sharma.
Gill has not played a T20I in a year. In his absence, Samson and Abhishek had formed a successful pair at the top of the order. However, Irfan wanted Samson to bat no. 5, a slot where he has scored just 62 runs in five innings, with the best score of 30*.
Speaking on Gill, the 40-year-old backed the young batter to replicate the legendary Virat Kohli in T20Is.
"Shubman Gill can do the work the great Virat Kohli has done for many years. Virat Kohli has played cricket in his own style. He tried to play long innings and found his own way in T20 cricket. If you six-hitters, he is not Chris Gayle, is Virat Kohli, but if you look at value, he had a lot of valuein T20s. I see Shubman Gill as a player of the mold," said Irfan.
India had a full-fledged practice session at the ICC Academy on on Friday as they put the finishing touches to their Asia Cup preparations.
This was the first time the players trained together since the England Test series, which ended in a 2-2 draw last month. Skipper Suryakumar Yadav, vice-captain Shubman Gill, Sanju Samson, Jitesh Sharma, Tilak Varma and Abhishek Sharma all had extended batting stints in the nets.
Several senior players, including Gill, Jasprit Bumrah, Arshdeep Singh and Kuldeep Yadav, had a month's rest ahead of the tournament. The team management did not hold a preparatory camp at the BCCI Centre of Excellence and instead chose to arrive early in Dubai to acclimatise.
Irfan Pathan's Team India XI for Asia Cup 2025:
Shubman Gill, Abhishek Sharma, Tilak Varma, Suryakumar Yadav (c), Sanju Samson (wk), Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, Shivam Dube/Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Arshdeep Singh, Varun Chakaravarthy