The defending champions of the Men’s Asia Cup 2025, Team India culminated their Group A fixtures having won all three and securing the top spot in the standings. As they now advance to the Super Fours, hoping to secure record ninth-title, they will kickstart their next stage with a game against Pakistan, scheduled to be played on Sunday, September 21.
On Friday, September 19, the Men in Blue registered an easy 21-run win over Oman in their final group fixture at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi. While the match saw several key moments with skipper Suryakumar Yadav demoting himself to No. 11, along with Indian management resting Varun Chakaravarthy and Jasprit Bumrah in order to give chance to other players.
Axar looks fine at this point: T Dilip shares positive update around Axar Patel
Apart from this, during the match,
there were several concerns which came in front, especially Axar Patel getting injured. In the game on Friday, the Indian all-rounder hurt himself while attempting a catch in the 15th over of Oman’s chase and walked off the field in discomfort. Seeing his injury, India’s fielding coach T Dilip was inquired of Patel’s status ahead of Super 4 game against Pakistan.
“Just now I've seen Axar, he looks fine now at this point of time. That's what I can say about it,” T Dilip said in the post-match press conference.While with less than 48 hours to the next game, Axar Patel’s fitness will continue to remain a concern. If he misses out, India might continue with two spinners in Varun and Kuldeep Yadav, adding a pacer in place of him.
India’s squad for Asia Cup 2025:
Surya Kumar Yadav (C), Shubman Gill (VC), Abhishek Sharma, Tilak Varma, Hardik Pandya, Shivam Dube, Axar Patel, Jitesh Sharma (WK), Jasprit Bumrah, Arshdeep Singh, Varun Chakaravarthy, Kuldeep Yadav, Sanju Samson (WK), Harshit Rana, Rinku Singh
Standby players: Yashasvi Jaiswal, Prasidh Krishna, Washington Sundar, Riyan Parag and Dhruv Jurel
