Hardik Pandya OUT, 3 Players IN: India’s Playing XI For Asia Cup 2025 Final | Cricket News

Star all-rounder Hardik Pandya is not playing for India in the Asia Cup 2025 final. According to India captain Suryakumar Yadav, the 31-year-old all-rounder from Baroda misses out due to a niggle. He has been replaced in the playing XI for the big match at Dubai International Cricket Stadium by Rinku Singh.

Hardik played six matches for India in the Asia Cup 2025 and picked up 4 wickets in addition to scoring 48 runs with the bat.

In India’s last Super 4s match against Sri Lanka on Friday, September 26, he scored 2 runs and picked up one wicket for 7 runs in one over.

As far as Rinku’s T20I numbers are concerned, the left-handed batter from Aligarh has scored 546 runs in 33 matches. His batting strike rate in the shortest format of the game is 161.06.

In addition to Rinku, Jasprit Bumrah and Shivam Dube are also back in India’s playing XI. Bumrah and Dube were rested for the Super 4s match against Sri Lanka.

“Unfortunately, Hardik misses out due to a niggle; Arshdeep and Harshit also miss out. Bumrah, Dube and Rinku come in,” Surya said during the toss.

Bumrah has played four matches in the Asia Cup 2025 and picked up two wickets, whereas Dube has accounted for the dismissal of 5 batters in five matches.

Pakistan, on the other hand, are playing with the unchanged XI.

Playing XIs

India: Abhishek Sharma, Shubman Gill, Suryakumar Yadav (C), Tilak Varma, Sanju Samson (WK), Shivam Dube, Rinku Singh, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Varun Chakaravarthy

Pakistan: Sahibzada Farhan, Fakhar Zaman, Saim Ayub, Salman Agha (C), Hussain Talat, Mohammad Haris (WK), Mohammad Nawaz, Faheem Ashraf, Shaheen Afridi, Haris Rauf, Abrar Ahmed

India to bowl first

In the Asia Cup 2025 final, India captain Suryakumar Yadav won the toss and opted to field first.

In the last India-Pakistan match played in the Asia Cup 2025 on September 21, India chased down the target of 172 runs in 18.5 overs to win the Super 4s match by 6 wickets. In that fixture, world No. 1 T20I batter Abhishek Sharma scored 74 runs from 39 balls and added 105 runs for the first wicket with Shubman Gill, who made 47 runs from 28 balls.