India's squad for the Asia Cup was announced on Tuesday by selection committee head Ajit Agarkar through a press-conference. It is safe to say that the selectors took some interesting calls in the 15-member squad that they chose. This includes how they ignored Yashasvi Jaiswal's name and only gave him a spot in the five-member reserve list for the tournament.
One of the people that were left surprised with Jaiswal's exclsion from the squad was former India cricketer Madan Lal. The 1983 World Cup winner argued that the selectors shouldn't have kept out the players who have the capability of winning matches for the team.
"Sometimes you feel surprised that a player like Yashasvi Jaiswal is not in the team. Gill is a good choice as he is performing well. In the coming time, it is possible that Gill will play in all three formats... The players who make the team win a match must not be left out. We have such a good team that we may win the Asia Cup," Madan told ANI.
Jaiswal was given a place in India's squad for the 2024 T20 World Cup, but failed to get a spot this time around. The 23-year-old's last appearance for the Men in Blue in the shortest format came against Sri Lanka in July, 2024. After Gautam Gambhir's appointment as head coach, the left-hand batter was sidelined from T20Is and shifted most of his focus to red-ball cricket.
Jaiswal has made many appearances for India in T20Is
Jaiswal has so far played 23 T20Is in his career, scoring 723 runs and maintaining a fine average of 36.15. He has hit a century and five fifties in the format and has the highest individual score of 100. Though his name has fallen down in the pecking order as many players are preferred over him in the batting department, Jaiswal will be eager to get his place in the squad back with the Men in Blue's future T20I assignments.
India's squad for Asia Cup 2025: Suryakumar Yadav (capt), Shubman Gill (vc), Abhishek Sharma, Tilak Varma, Hardik Pandya, Shivam Dube, Axar Patel, Jitesh Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah, Varun Chakravarthy, Arshdeep Singh, Kuldeep Yadav, Sanju Samson, Harshit Rana, Rinku Singh.