In picking their squad for the 2025 Asia Cup, India moved away from a strategy that had helped them become a near-invincible T20I unit over the past year and a half.
Having made up their mind on Rinku Singh and Shivam Dube, India could have picked only one of Shubman Gill, Yashasvi Jaiswal, and Shreyas Iyer. They went with Gill, presumably with an eye on an across-format captain in the future.
However, that choice is not what we shall discuss here. Neither is this an elaborate debate on anchors versus hitters.
What we shall try to do here is discuss why India had approached the 2024 T20 World Cup the way they did, and how they moved away from that with their Asia Cup team selection.
Looking back at the 2023 World Cup a year and a half later, one can probably point out the two injuries that played significant roles in Indias defeat: Axar Patels ahead of the competition, and Hardik Pandyas during the league match against Bangladesh.
