Asia Cup 2025: Players share compassion and feeling of majority Indians, says ten Doeschate ahead of Pakistan clash

With recent tensions between the nuclear-armed neighbours casting a long shadow over their Asia Cup encounter in Dubai on Sunday, India’s assistant coach Ryan ten Doeschate reassured the media that the Men in Blue shared the feelings of the Indian public and their performance on the field would reflect how they felt.

The usually heated India-Pakistan cricketing rivalry has been doused by calls of boycott from certain sections of the Indian public in the wake of the Pahalgam terrorist attack in Jammu and Kashmir and the military standoff that followed.

“Hopefully, the way we play can represent how the players feel about the country. I understand the sentiment, but we are following the direction of what the BCCI and the Indian government have decided,” Doeschate said.

“It is obviously a very sensitive issue, and I have no doubt that the players share the compassion and the feeling of the vast majority of the Indian public. The Asia Cup was in limbo for a long time, and we were just waiting. We didn’t think we were going to come at one stage,” the Dutch added.

He stressed the need to be emotionless while dealing with the cricketing side of things and said that waiting to know whether the tournament would even take place was the most frustrating part. “Once we knew we were going to be playing, we tried to get on with the business of it,” he explained.

Though India’s nine-wicket rout of the UAE in the tournament opener didn’t allow the management to arrive at any conclusions, Doeschate said the team would likely remain unchanged.

“Unlikely to make changes. The biggest information takeaway is the difference from when we played the Champions Trophy [in February-March], the wickets played a bit differently. But the combination for the first game was the right setup.”

India fielded two specialist spinners in Kuldeep Yadav and Varun Chakaravarthy and left out left-arm pacer Arshdeep Singh for the tournament opener.

Preview | With subdued buildup, India-Pakistan rivalry shifts from stars to teams

With spin holding an overwhelming edge at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium, this could be India’s combination for the rest of the tournament.

“Spin is going to be very important in this competition. The ball hasn’t gripped as much as we anticipated, and certainly not like it did earlier in the year. Spin in general has become a very important part of T20 cricket, and both teams have a lot of spin on offer,” the assistant coach said.

India’s batting order has been a major talking point, with Shubman Gill being parachuted back into the T20I team and forcing Sanju Samson lower down the order.

Doeschate explained that the versatility of India’s batting unit was its strength and gave it a dynamic edge if a situation warranted shuffling positions.

“The overriding principle is that we want versatile players who can play differently in different situations and can also bat in different positions. We are lucky with Sanju [Samson], and Axar [Patel], and even Hardik [Pandya]; they can bat anywhere from up the order all the way through to 7 or 8.”

Suryakumar Yadav’s men will be up against a new-look Pakistan team, which is likely to feature just two players (Fakhar Zaman and Shaheen Afridi) from the side that lost to India at the T20 World Cup last year.

Doeschate acknowledged the test that awaits. “Pakistan has started to come to terms with how they want to play T20 cricket, so it is going to be a slightly different challenge from the last 24 months.”

Published on Sep 13, 2025