India's standby players to not travel to Dubai for Asia Cup? Report makes big claim

India's 15-member squad for Asia Cup 2025 was announced by selection committee chief Ajit Agarkar last week. Suryakumar Yadav will be leading the side in the tournament and while Shubman Gill will be his deputy. Apart from the squad, Agarkar had also named a five-member reserve list which included the likes of Yashasvi Jaiswal, Prasidh Krishna, Washington Sundar, Dhruv Jurel and Riyan Parag.

It was expected that the standby players will be travelling top Dubai with the Indian team for the continental tournament. However, according to a report by PTI, the five of them will remain in India and only the 15-member squad will be flying to Dubai.

"No, the standby players will not be travelling with the main squad to Dubai," PTI quoted a BCCI source as saying.

India squad to assemble in Dubai on September 4

Meanwhile, the entire India squad is expected to arrive in UAE by September 4. Interestingly, the players won't be travelling together and will rather be flying directly from their home cities to Dubai. The team is currently training for the tournament at BCCI's Centre of Excellence (CoE) and have all reportedly passed their fitness tests.

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The team's new travel arrangements have been designed in order to reduce unneccessary fatigue for the players. They will also have more time to settle for the tournament in this way. Team India's first net session for the Asia Cup is scheduled for September 5, four days before the tournament commences. It is set to be held at the ICC Academy.

On the other hand, India will begin their campaign for the tournament with the clash against UAE on September 10 before facing-off against arch-rivals Pakistan on September 14. They will conclude their group stage with the match against Oman on September 19. Suryakumar Yadav & Co'. will be aiming to win their record ninth Asia Cup title in history.

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India squad for Asia Cup: Suryakumar 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