India’s World Cup-winning star picks playing 11 for IND vs UAE Asia Cup 2025 match; drops Kuldeep Yadav

India's 1983 World Cup-winning star Krishnamachari Srikkanth picked his playing 11 for their opening Asia Cup 2025 clash against the UAE. The game will be played on Wednesday, September 10, in Dubai. He named his playing 11 in a video on his YouTube channel 'Cheeky Cheeka'.

Srikkanth chose Abhishek Sharma and Shubman Gill as his openers. Abhishek has scored 535 runs from 17 T20Is at an average of 33.43 and a srike-rate of 193.84 with two hundreds. On the other hand, Gill returned to the T20I side and has been named vice-captain as well.

For the middle order, he went with Tilak Varma, Suryakumar Yadav, and Shivam Dube. Tilak impressed in the recent home T20I series against England and had a decent IPL 2025. Suryakumar retained his spot in the squad and will lead India at the Asia Cup. He had a phenomenal IPL 2025, scoring 717 runs from 16 games at an average of 65.18 and a strike-rate of 167.91.

The former India opener then chose Hardik Pandya and Axar Patel, along with Jitesh Sharma as the wicketkeeper. Coming to the bowlers, Srikkanth went with Jasprit Bumrah, Arshdeep Singh, and Varun Chakavarthy. Bumrah and Arshdeep would have key roles to play. There will be expectations from Varun as well, who played an important role in India's triumph at the 2025 Champions Trophy, which was also held in Dubai.

Notably, he left Sanju Samson out, along with wrist-spinner Kuldeep Yadav.

Krishnamachari Srikkanth's India playing 11 for Asia Cup 2025 match against UAE: Abhishek Sharma, Shubman Gill, Tilak Varma, Suryakumar Yadav (C), Shivam Dube, Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, Jitesh Sharma (WK), Jasprit Bumrah, Arshdeep Singh, Varun Chakaravarthy.

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"Unfortunately, it is sad but it might happen" - Former India captain on Kuldeep Yadav missing out

In the same video, Krishnamachari Srikkanth expressed that Kuldeep Yadav's exclusion from India's playing 11 would be unfortunate. However, he reckoned that the team would have no choice but to drop the star spinner.

While he left him out of his predicted 11 as well, Srikkanth stated that he would have picked Kuldeep if he were the selector.

"Unfortunately, it is sad but it might happen. You have no choice. Then Shivam Dube and Abhishek will have to bowl an over or two if the sixth bowler option is required. If it is on me I will play seven batters and play Kuldeep. Do you need a century from a batter at number eight? Kuldeep is capable of scoring some runs and he has done it in the past," he said. (19:44)

Kuldeep Yadav even missed out during the recently concluded five-match Test series in England. With the team giving more importance to batting depth, the wrist-spinner was benched throughout the series. It could be a similar story for him at the Asia Cup despite having a solid record.

Kuldeep has bagged 69 wickets from 40 T20Is so far at an average of 14.07 and an economy rate of 6.77.