Why Standby Players Yashasvi Jaiswal, Prasidh Krishna Won’t Join India’s Asia Cup Squad in Dubai

Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has clarified that the five standby players that have been chosen to play at the Asia Cup 2025 will not be travelling with the main squad to Dubai. These are Yashasvi Jaiswal, Prasidh Krishna, Washington Sundar, Riyan Parag and Dhruv Jurel.

BCCI’s decision on standby players

When questioned whether these cricketers would accompany as a reserve or net bowlers, a senior official of BCCI affirmed in the negative. “No, the standby players will not be travelling with the main squad to Dubai,” the official told PTI.

This option implies that the management likes the travelling party to remain small. In case of the need to replace the players during the tournament, players on standby will be flown in direct to the tournament instead of waiting in Dubai.

Yashasvi Jaiswal and Prasidh Krishna’s role explained

Shubman Gill, Abhishek Sharma, and Sanju Samson are already the vacancies of the team. That is why, Yashasvi Jaiswal would appear only in case one of them is injured. In the same manner, Prasidh Krishna stands a chance of appearing only when pacers such as Jasprit Bumrah, Arshdeep Singh or Harshit Rana are not available.

Remarkably, India only announced 15 final players, in spite of the rules of the Asia Cup, which allowed each team to include a maximum number of 17 players. This is a definite desire to remain on a smaller core.

India’s squad to assemble in Dubai

The 15-member Indian team will assemble in Dubai on September 4 led by Suryakumar Yadav. The first game of the team will be on September 9 and the players will be training in ICC Academy since September 5.

Deviating off track, the BCCI has chosen that the cricketers will not assemble in Mumbai first. Rather, they will fly directly between their cities. “All the players will arrive in Dubai by September 4 evening and the first nets session will be held on September 5 at the ICC Academy,” the official explained.

This choice is mostly logically convenient. “Obviously, a few will travel from Mumbai but to ask some of the others to first come to Mumbai and then fly to Dubai doesn’t make sense. In any case, Dubai is a short-duration flight compared to other international flights,” the official added.

Asia Cup 2025 fixtures and preparation

Their campaign against UAE will start on September 10. They will then have arch-rivals Pakistan on September 14, and Oman on September 19. The group stage will end after which the Super Four stage of the Asia Cup will commence.

Certain squad members are already in operation at the domestic level. The North Zone is playing with fast bowlers Arshdeep Singh and Harshit Rana in the quarterfinal of the Duleep Trophy against East Zone. Elsewhere, spinner, Kuldeep Yadav, is playing in Central Zone against North East Zone.

India will play the Asia cup 2025 with the following final squad: Suryakumar Yadav (C), Shubman Gill (VC), Abhishek Sharma, Tilak Varma, Hardik Pandya, Shivam Dube, Axar Patel, Jitesh Sharma (WK), Jasprit Bumrah, Arshdeep Singh, Varun Chakaravarthy, Kuldeep Yadav, Sanju Samson (WK), Harshit Rana, and Rinku Singh.

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