India's squad for Asia Cup 2025 has been finally announced and the team management did makke some very interesting calls. From Shubman Gill returning to the T20I squad as vice-captain to Jasprit Bumrah getting picked despite the debate around his workload management, there sure are many talking points.
The team management also decided to keep experienced all-rounder Washington Sundar out of the squad and only chose him as a stand-by. Instead of him, Rinku Singh was given the nod and was added to the 15-member squad. Selection committee head Ajit Agarkar revealed that this decision was taken because the selectors feel that the team needs an extra batter and Rinku can very well do that job.
Agarkar further stated that they will always look towards Sundar when they need four spinners, however that unfortunately isn't the case for Asia Cup. He also highlighted the fact that the squad already has two wristspinners in Kuldeep Yadav and Varun Chakravarthy and additionally have Axar Patel as the spin-bowling all-rounder.
The team already has 2 wristspinners
"He's always been in the scheme of things. At the moment, we have two mystery spinners/wristspinners in Varun and Kuldeep, and Axar has been around for a while. When we need four spinners - he may always be in the mix. For now, we felt we needed an extra batter in Rinku. And you could only pick 15. If there were 16, maybe he could've been in," Agarkar said in the press-conference, as quoted by ESPNcricinfo.
Meanwhile, both Sundar and Rinku have a lot of experience when it comes to the shortest format. While the former has featured in 54 T20Is, the latter has played 33 T20Is. Both the players have been successful in different departments as Sundar has taken 48 wickets while Rinku has scored 546 runs in the format. It remains to be seen if the decision to play an extra batter ends up favouring the Men in Blue or not during the tournament.
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.