Suryakumar, Hardik fly to Dubai for Asia Cup

• Suryakumar, Hardik leave for Dubai, India's Asia Cup base beginning September 9.
• Gambhir, Arshdeep, Kuldeep, others to arrive by Thursday for team's first nets session.
• Gill, Bumrah, Jitesh pass fitness tests; Gill is vice-captain for T20I Asia Cup.

India’s T20I captain Suryakumar Yadav and star all-rounder Hardik Pandya were seen departing Mumbai for Dubai, where the Indian team will be based during the upcoming Asia Cup, which is all set to start

on September 9, with India defending their title.

Head coach Gautam Gambhir also left Delhi for Dubai on Thursday.

Other Indian cricketers, including pacer Harshit Rana, Arshdeep Singh and Kuldeep Yadav, are expected to arrive by Thursday as well. A social media post by Arshdeep suggests that he left for Dubai earlier today. Watch the video here:

Off they go! ✈️

Team India captain @surya_14kumar and star all-rounder @hardikpandya7 have left for the Asia Cup 2025.

The mission? Bring the trophy home. 🏆🇮🇳

[Asia Cup 2025, Indian Cricket Team] pic.twitter.com/hYY7z6O0rc

— Star Sports (@StarSportsIndia) September 4, 2025

“All the players will arrive in Dubai by September 4 evening and the first nets session will be held on September 5 at the ICC Academy. Factoring in the logistical convenience, the players will be allowed to fly into Dubai from their respective cities,” a senior BCCI official earlier told PTI.

Reserve cricketers such as Washington Sundar, Prasidh Krishna, Yashasvi Jaiswal and others wouldn’t travel with the side.

Meanwhile, Indian players, including Test captain Shubman Gill and ODI skipper Rohit Sharma, have cleared the pre-season fitness test, which was held at BCCI Centre of Excellence in Bengaluru.

While Rohit has retired from T20Is and won’t be a part of the Asia Cup, Gill has been named as vice-captain.

Gill has expectedly left for Dubai for the Asia Cup, beginning on September 9 and his teammates, ace India pacer Jasprit Bumrah and Jitesh Sharma, too have passed the fitness parameters.

Gill was named India’s vice-captain for the T20I event. A fitness test became mandatory for him as he had to pull out of the Duleep Trophy, where he was named the North Zone skipper, due to a fever and was resting at his home town for the last few days.