Assessing Sai Sudharsan's temperament and Nitish Kumar Reddy's utility in home conditions would be topmost on India's checklist when the high-on-confidence hosts take on a floundering West Indies
ri Lanka opener Pathum Nissanka smashed a belligerent century as Indian bowlers endured their worst day in the Asia Cup before Arshdeep Singh produced a brilliant 'Super Over' to win the game for his side in Dubai on Friday.
This was India's third victory in a row against Pakistan and their 11th victory overall against the arch-rivals in 14 T20 matches.
Indian spinner Ravi Bishnoi and left-arm seamer Arshdeep Singh moved up to the sixth and 10th spot respectively in the latest ICC T20 rankings released on Wednesday.
In the ongoing tournament, India has dropped 12 catches and boasts an efficiency rate of 67.5 per cent, the second-lowest among all participating nations.
'I hadn't really planned to get a wicket on the first ball. My mindset was to put the ball in the right areas. Obviously, when you play knockouts, you want to start and finish well with the first and last ball.'
Ashwin wants this "unexpected hero" to surprise against Pakistan during Asia Cup
With the much-anticipated Group A clash against arch-rivals Pakistan looming, India is sparing no effort in their training sessions, honing skills and strategising tactics.
Ravindra Jadeja's omission from the India ODI squad for Australia tour raised a few eyebrows but the veteran all-rounder was not surprised as the selection committee and team management had "communicated" to him about their inability to pick him.
The inclusion of Gill in the squad has raised doubts in the minds of management about who will open the innings for their side, along with left-hand batter Abhishek, in the tournament.
Chahal asked Axar about being promoted to number four in the batting order to which the bowling all-rounder said that things were made easy as Pant was joking around and having fun between the deliveries.
Mystery spinner Varun Charkravarthy on Wednesday rose to the top spot in ICC's T20 International Bowlers' Rankings for the first time
Will Shubman Gill force either Sanju Samson or Tilak Varma out of the playing XI for the Asia Cup opening match against the UAE?
Fresh from a hard-fought 2-2 draw in England, Shubman Gill's men will be eager to translate their overseas resilience into home dominance.
After the proceedings began with light warm-up and catching, the action shifted to the nets where all batters had long stints in the nets while the other pace bowlers too put in the hard yards.
The team management now has a tricky call on hand while deciding whether to keep Samson in the playing XI finding a slot for him in top three or play Jitesh Sharma
Purnendu Maji and Srinivas Bhogle present Rediff's Most Valuable Player Index of Asia Cup 2025.
Why did SKY give Bangladesh's fielding coach a hug?
This is the first-ever India vs Pakistan final across 17 editions of the Men's Asia Cup since the tournament's inception in 1984.
With a five-match T20I series in October-November in Australia, five T20Is against South Africa at home in December and five T20Is against New Zealand at home in January 2026, Team India will now look to test itself, its combinations and youngsters against some of the world's best T20I teams ahead of the T20 WC 2026, which will start in early 2026.
Such has been the problem of plenty for selectors in the T20 format that they are finding it difficult to even accommodate Yashasvi Jaiswal -- a proven performer in T20 cricket.
UAE captain Muhammad Waseem said they won't treat the opening match against T20 World champions India as a big game and will look to play normally.
Hardik Pandya could become the first Indian and overall the third player in the history of T20 Internationals to achieve the double of 2000 runs and 100 wickets.
The 23-year-old explained that his stint with Delhi Capitals sharpened his cricketing brain.
Shubman Gill enjoyed a phenomenal run with the bat in England, piling up 754 runs at an average of 75.40 with four centuries.
Gill's highest score in the three Asia Cup matches has been an unbeaten 20 with the Test skipper failing to click in the games against Pakistan and Oman after a fruitful red-ball away series against England.
The India vs Bangladesh rivalry has gotten bitter in recent years, thanks to the partisan young fans, many of whom perceive India as an adversary.
Seldom has an India vs Pakistan clash played with such a volatile backdrop, where cricket seems inseparably knotted with off-field tension, provocative gestures, and fines slapped on both camps.
Kuldeep Yadav's artistry was too much for a clueless UAE to comprehend as India hardly broke a sweat in an emphatic nine-wicket victory in their Asia Cup opener in Dubai on Wednesday.
Pakistan are currently in the second spot with two points, ahead of UAE (2 points) on net run rate.
Operation Sindoor has not yet been formally called off. What was the crying need to send a team when it was known that there could be a match with Pakistan? asks Vice Admiral Biswajit Dasgupta (retd).
'Every team is looking to play either a pure batter or a pure bowler as the Impact Player, and the all-rounders are not being used.'
The series in Australia could well be Rohit's last in India Blues. But Kohli, given his high fitness standards, could play on until the 2027 World Cup.
'I feel Kuldeep Yadav is your automatic choice. But it seems like you are doing an injustice if you leave Axar out.'
Shivam Dube remains a vital cog in India's T20 set-up and bowling coach Morne Morkel wants the Mumbai all-rounder to step up as a back-up medium pacer ahead of the T20 World Cup, in line with head coach Gautam Gambhir's philosophy of packing the XI with multi-skilled cricketers.
Nicholas Pooran kept LSG in the hunt even though wickets were tumbling at the other end. But Pooran's stay was cut short when Axar Patel took a sharp game-changing catch!
Sanju Samson not batting enough at number five and six doesn't mean he can't do the job there, said India's batting coach Sitanshu Kotak on Friday while expressing confidence in the Kerala dasher's ability ahead of the Asia Cup clash against Pakistan.
When I interviewed Alishan Sharafu as a 14-year-old schoolboy following his huge scores in domestic matches, he told me he wanted to bat like A B de Villiers.
On Friday night in Abu Dhabi, that same man -- now 43 and wearing Oman's colours -- stood tall against cricket's biggest stars and proved that dreams have no expiry date.
Almost all the Indian batters ended their batting sessions with lofted shots. Every few minutes, screams of 'Watch out!' filled the air -- not from the players, but from scribes trying to protect their laptops, cameras, and skulls.
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