Left-arm pacer Arshdeep Singh, who entered his name in the history books on Friday, September 19, by becoming the first Indian bowler to take 100 wickets in T20Is, in all likelihood will be dropped to the bench
when world No. 1 T20I team India takes on arch-rivals Pakistan in their first Super 4s match of the ongoing Asia Cup 2025 on Sunday, September 21, in Dubai. Arshdeep picked up one wicket in India’s 21-run win over Oman on Friday, but he failed to impress with his performance, as a result of which he will be left out of the XI along with Harshit Rana. Both Harshit and Arshdeep, who replaced Varun Chakaravarthy and Jasprit Bumrah in India’s playing XI for the match against Oman, will make way for them.
Chakaravarthy, who is the world’s No. 1 T20I bowler, has picked up two wickets in two Asia Cup 2025 matches played so far, and the Tamil Nadu-based cricketer would like to come up with a big show on Sunday and help India extend their winning run to four matches in a row.
On the other hand, Jasprit Bumrah will lead the pace attack and once again look to help India strike early in the innings. In the last India-Pakistan match played on Sunday, September 14, in Dubai, he picked up two wickets for 28 runs in four overs.
In the batting, despite Shubman Gill’s flop show with the bat in the last two matches, Indian team management are unlikely to make any changes. But it will be interesting to see the batting position of Sanju Samson. Samson, who scored three centuries as an opener in T20Is last year, scored 56 runs from 45 balls against Oman on Friday as a No. 3 batter, and there could be a possibility of him getting a promotion in the batting order.
In the last match against Pakistan, captain Suryakumar Yadav top-scored for Team India by remaining unbeaten on 47 runs, and he will be eager to play another match-winning knock on Sunday.
In addition to Surya, Samson and Gill, eyes will also be on the performances of Abhishek Sharma and Tilak Varma. Both of them made good starts in the last two Group A matches but were unable to play big knocks.
Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel and Shivam Dube will continue to operate as three all-rounders in the XI, and Kuldeep Yadav, who has dismissed 8 batters in three matches played so far, will lead the spin attack and look to run past Pakistan’s batting order once again.
India’s likely playing XI: Abhishek Sharma, Shubman Gill, Sanju Samson (WK), Suryakumar Yadav (C), Tilak Varma, Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, Shivam Dube, Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Varun Chakaravarthy
