Star Who Did "Even Better Than Shubman Gill" Snubbed From Asia Cup, BCCI Questioned

Shreyas Iyer was not the only major omission from India's Asia Cup squad. Young left-hander Yashasvi Jaiswal was not picked too. Jaiswal was the back-up opener ahead of Gill for the T20 World Cup last year. He was the backup as India wanted to open with Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli. Having made 723 runs in 23 T20Is with a century and five fifties at a strike rate of over 164 throughout his career, Jaiswal's 559-run IPL 2025 season (in 14 matches with six fifties at SR of almost 160) brought back the leftie into T20I conversations. Jaiswal has been named in the reserve players for the Asia Cup.

Shubman Gill has been named as India's vice-captain and former Chennai Super Kings (CSK) player Subramaniam Badrinath termed it a welcome move, but he had a question. 

"I see this mostly as a positive that they are backing a youngster and projecting him for the future. But what about Yashasvi Jaiswal? He has done even better than Shubman Gill. Also, why has Sai Sudharsan missed out after scoring 700 runs in IPL 2025 and performing better than Shubman Gill? Sanju Samson himself is now in doubt to start in the playing 11," Subramaniam Badrinath said on his YouTube channel. 

"So while backing Shubman Gill, you ask what wrong have Yashasvi Jaiswal and Sai Sudharsan done when their numbers are better than Gill's. Is this selection based on recency bias? This has been happening in India cricket forever - pick the player doing the best at the moment even if the formats are different. It's not a bad decision but one that's 50-50."

India will kick off their campaign against the UAE on September 10, while the high-voltage game against Pakistan is scheduled for September 14, with both fixtures set to be played in Dubai. India will play their final group stage fixture against Oman on September 19 in Abu Dhabi.

Topics mentioned in this article

Shreyas Iyer India Cricket Team Asia Cup 2025 Yashasvi Jaiswal Cricket