A LOT many things will be on the discussion board when the Asia Cup 2025 begins in a few days in the United Arab Emirates. India stand a chance to create history by winning the ninth title but it is easier said than done despite the Men in Blue starting as favourites. But more than the record bid, many other hot topics will be at the centre of cricket fans’ discussion including the high-octane much-debated India vs Pakistan clash scheduled on September 14. Coming against the backdrop of the heightened hostilities between the two neighbours after the Pahalgam terrorist attack and Operation Sindoor, the match is set to generate huge amount of heat. How the teams are going to cope with the pressure will be interesting to see.

 

Ahead of the tournament, there has been too much discussion on the composition of the Indian squad led by Suryakumar Yadav. It is a well-balanced side with some known Twenty20 experts leading the line-up but the discussion had been grabbed by the exclusion of Shreyas Iyer. The Mumbai batsman has been kept out despite having a sterling form in the preceding series including the Champions Trophy and the Indian Premier League. Though chief selector Ajit Agarkar reasoned that there was no place to accommodate Iyer, the inclusion of Shubman Gill as Vice-Captain has raised much dust. Gill was fabulous in his captaincy debut series in England where a seemingly weak Indian side clinched an impressive 2-2 scoreline. It was natural on part of the selectors and BCCI to groom him as a leader in all formats. However, the grouse is about the benching of Iyer.

 

What such episodes do is create an atmosphere of unease in the dressing room. Social media has already poured much poison in the debate by inventing conspiracy theories targeting Iyer. There are stories abound about the perceived dissonance between the middle-order batsman and coach Gautam Gambhir. Of course, the team is mature to ignore such crap, it does leave a bad taste lingering on the overall atmosphere. The Men in Blue would do well to keep it away from their mental circle and focus on the tournament.

 

The best thing will be to cut the outside noise about all such issues, the Pakistan game included. Now that the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has clarified that the boycott of Pakistan is limited to bilateral series and not in a multi-team tournament, there should not be much deliberation about the Indo-Pak game. Of course, the match will generate too much noise in both the countries and will also become a conflict point in domestic politics. Yet, there is not way the noise would result in cancellation of the game or India’s withdrawal from the tournament, something which was done by an unofficial event of former players. In that event, the former Indian players refused to play Pakistan citing its hand in the Pahalgam terror attack and eventually forfeited the semi-final. There is no such chance of a replay of that act in the Asia Cup.

 

For the Men in Blue, their focus must now be on preparing a blueprint for next year’s World Twenty20 Championship by using the Asia Cup as an audition round. The UAE event will help the team management find the players who can be groomed for the ICC tournament and mark the players with suspect fitness needed for the slam-bang format. The selected players are expected to form the core of the team during the marquee ICC event.