Asia Cup 2025: Suryakumar, Hardik join coach Gambhir as India squad arrives in Dubai

A batch of Indian men’s cricket team players, along with head coach Gautam Gambhir, arrived in Dubai on Thursday evening as the defending champions gear up for a preparatory camp in the UAE ahead of the Asia Cup 2025. Gambhir was joined by captain Suryakumar Yadav and all-rounder Hardik Pandya, with the trio spotted entering Mumbai airport earlier in the day.

Coach Gambhir, dressed in a black T-shirt and blue jeans, was later seen posing for a photograph with a fan at Dubai airport. Rinku Singh, Abhishek Sharma, Harshit Rana and Kuldeep Yadav also landed in Dubai on Thursday evening.

In a departure from convention, the Indian players and members of the support staff are arriving in Dubai in a staggered manner. In the past, the entire squad would assemble in Mumbai before flying out together for major tournaments. However, the BCCI has relaxed the rules this time, allowing players to travel directly from their respective cities in light of ongoing domestic cricket commitments.

Among the Asia Cup-bound players, Arshdeep Singh and Harshit Rana turned out for North Zone against East Zone in the Duleep Trophy quarter-final in Bengaluru, while Kuldeep Yadav represented Central Zone against North East Zone in the same city.

All players were expected to reach Dubai by the evening of 4 September. Vice-captain Shubman Gill also confirmed his arrival by sharing a photograph on social media, believed to have been taken at the team hotel.

The entire squad is scheduled to assemble at the International Cricket Council (ICC) Academy in Dubai on Friday, where they will hold their first net session.

It remains unclear whether the reserves — Yashasvi Jaiswal, Prasidh Krishna, Washington Sundar, Riyan Parag and Dhruv Jurel — will also travel to Dubai and remain with the core 15-man squad.

India’s 15-member squad is led by Suryakumar Yadav, with Gill making his return to the T20I set-up for the first time in over a year. Gill is expected to open alongside Abhishek Sharma, while Sanju Samson, who impressed in the role, is likely to make way. Samson may yet feature in the middle order, but the management could favour Jitesh Sharma for the finisher’s role, having included him as the back-up wicketkeeper in the squad.

India will launch their campaign against hosts UAE in Dubai on 10 September, a day after Afghanistan and Hong Kong meet in the tournament opener in Abu Dhabi. The defending champions will then face arch-rivals Pakistan in a group-stage clash in Dubai on 14 September before taking on Oman in their final group game on 19 September.

The top two sides from each group will progress to the Super Four stage. Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Hong Kong make up the other group.