Shubman Gill has made a comeback to India's T20I squad for the Asia Cup and has replaced Axar Patel as vice-captain.The 15-member squad, picked by the selection committee on Tuesday in Mumbai, will be led by Suryakumar Yadav and includes Abhishek Sharma and Sanju Samson as the two other opening candidates. With Gill named vice-captain, however, he could be the frontrunner for one of the slots at the top of the order.

 The middle and lower order batting options are Suryakumar, Tilak Varma, Rinku Singh and Jitesh Sharma, who could be the first-choice wicketkeeper if India decide to open with Gill and Abhishek. There are also three allrounders in Axar, Hardik Pandya and Shivam Dube. The specialist bowling options are Jasprit Bumrah, Arshdeep Singh, Kuldeep Yadav, Varun Chakravarthy and Harshit Rana, who provides some extra batting depth too. 

There was no place for Yashasvi Jaiswal, who was among the five reserve players along with Prasidh Krishna, Washington Sundar, Riyan Parag and Dhruv Jurel. Shreyas Iyer, who scored 604 runs at a strike rate of 175 in IPL 2025 and led Punjab Kings to the final, also did not find a place in the 15. The Asia Cup is India's first T20I assignment since the bilateral series against England at home in January. India are in Group A along with Pakistan, Oman and UAE.

Their first game is against UAE in Dubai on September 10, after which they play Pakistan in Dubai on September 14, and Oman in Abu Dhabi on September 19.India's squad for the Asia Cup1 Suryakumar Yadav (capt), 2 Shubman Gill (vc), 3 Hardik Pandya, 4 Arshdeep Singh, 5 Abhishek Sharma, 6 Tilak Varma, 7 Shivam Dube , 8 Axar Patel, 9 Jitesh Sharma, 10 Jasprit Bumrah, 11 Varun Chakravarthy , 12 Kuldeep Yadav, 13 Harshit Rana, 14 Rinku Singh, 15 Sanju Samson

Credit: Independent News Pakistan (INP)