In the final of the Asia Cup 2025 at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium, Pakistan started off brilliantly with the bat as their openers Sahibzada Farhan and Fakhar Zaman shared an opening stand of 84
runs within the first 10 overs against India. But, from that point onwards, the Indian spin trio of Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, and Varun Chakravarthy simply demolished the middle-order of Pakistan, to help bundle them out well within the allotted 20 overs.
The carnage began with Varun Chakravarthy, who picked up the massive wicket of Sahibzada Farhan after the Pakistan opener scored 57 off 38 with five fours and three sixes, getting him caught out on the pull at deep mid-wicket to Tilak Varma. Saim Ayub was the next to go after a 29-run stand with Fakhar Zaman for the second wicket, falling to Kuldeep Yadav, his first wicket of the evening before the wickets came in a cluster for the Indian cricket team, leaving Pakistan 113/2 in 12.5 overs and the things didn’t get much better for them after this either.
In the next over, Mohammad Haris didn’t trouble the scorers on the bowling of Axar Patel, and then, Varun Chakravarthy got the well set Fakhar Zaman for 46 off 35 in the 15th over. Hussain Talat scored 1 off 2 before Axar Patel sent him back into the pavilion in the next over, following which Kuldeep Yadav bagged three wickets in the 17th over, dismissing Pakistan captain Salman Agha, Shaheen Afridi, and Faheen Ashraf cheaply, to put the opposition completely out of the game at 134/8 in 17 overs.
Jasprit Bumrah returned to the bowling attack to clean up the tail by taking the last two wickets of the Pakistan innings, bundling them out for just 146 runs in 19.1 overs to put India in a strong position to win the Asia Cup 2025 title. Kuldeep Yadav was the pick of the bowlers for India with figures of 4-30 in his four-over spell, while Varun Chakravarthy and Axar Patel took two wickets apiece as well.
Below are the playing XIs of India and Pakistan for the Asia Cup 2025 final:
India: Abhishek Sharma, Shubman Gill, Suryakumar Yadav (c), Tilak Varma, Sanju Samson (wk), Shivam Dube, Rinku Singh, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Varun Chakravarthy
Pakistan: Fakhar Zaman, Sahibzada Farhan, Saim Ayub, Salman Agha (c), Hussain Talat, Mohammad Haris (wk), Mohammad Nawaz, Faheem Ashraf, Shaheen Afridi, Haris Rauf, Abrar Ahmed
