ASIA CUP 2025
India have dropped 12 catches in the tournament, eight of them in the last two games alone © Getty
This meeting could have been an email. India have already qualified, Sri Lanka are already out and there’s really not much riding on this Asia Cup fixture. Yes, there’s a T20 World Cup in a few months time and while that will also be played in Asia, the conditions are going to be very different from what Dubai offers. But still, it’s a match that both teams would try and look to use.
India have spent this Asia Cup training their minds to embrace chaos, shuffling the batting order, throwing bowlers into unfamiliar phases and trusting in controlled experiments. But amid all that deliberate disorder, their fielding has slipped into something far less intentional.
The catching from India has been poor: 12 drops in the tournament, eight of them in the last two games alone. It’s the one area where they’ve turned straightforward situations into far trickier ones and it should worry them. And as Varun Chakaravarthy and Suryakumar Yadav have both pointed out, India have played and practiced enough in Dubai to be familiar with the Ring of Fire floodlights, so the excuses are running out.
Abhishek Sharma, at the top of both his game and his bat swing, has been giving India the kind of head starts that allow room for mistakes. Once again, he will be the one to watch, though Sri Lanka will be eager to see whether India can find a way forward if those early wickets do fall.
For Sri Lanka, this has been a tournament to forget. Coming to the UAE, they would have expected to be among the top-two teams in Asia but the batters didn’t quite stand up to the challenge. In their defeats to Bangladesh and Pakistan, they failed to put up decent totals on the board and it was difficult coming back on pitches which always play better under lights.
They weren’t also quite able to nail their best team, something they would like to perfect in the lead-up to the T20 World Cup. “We tried going with an extra bowler [vs Pakistan] but we lost a specialist batsman because of that and didn’t score the runs we needed. Other times we’ve played an extra batsman and couldn’t defend a score with the ball. We need to figure out how to consistently score 180-200 and also how to use the part-time bowlers like myself, Dasun, Kamindu Mendis better,” Charith Asalanka said after Sri Lanka’s defeat to Pakistan.
This match then, against the best team in the Asia Cup, gives Sri Lanka another shot at perfecting the combination. That it’s come in a dead rubber in a short tournament such as this, though, won’t please them.
When: September 26, 2025, 6:30 PM LOCAL / 8:00 PM IST
Where: Dubai International Cricket Stadium
What to expect: Familiar slow and low conditions await both teams. The new ball should skid onto the bat well and enable shot-making but after the first 10 overs, timing the ball and finding gaps will become more difficult. Batters often have relied on high-risk shots to clear the ropes, which has meant more sixes but also wicket-taking opportunities.
Head to head: India 22 -9 Sri Lanka
Team news:
India:
Injuries/unavailability: No reported injuries in the Indian camp.
Tactics & matchups: India are all set to rest Jasprit Bumrah for this match. That could mean some match time for Harshit Rana, who would also bring some batting depth with him. There could be some match time for Jitesh Sharma, who has routinely looked among the best while batting in the nets. Playing Wanindu Hasaranga in the middle overs will be key, the legspinner having not conceded anything over 27 runs in this Asia Cup.
Probable XI: Abhishek Sharma, Shubman Gill, Suryakumar Yadav (c), Tilak Varma, Sanju Samson (wk)/Jitesh Sharma (wk), Hardik Pandya, Shivam Dube, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav/Arshdeep Singh, Jasprit Bumrah/Harshit Rana, Varun Chakaravarthy
Sri Lanka
Injuries/unavailability: All players are available for this match.
Tactics & matchups: India’s spin attack, which has gone at under 6 runs/over in this Asia Cup, is going to be a challenge for Sri Lanka’s middle order, which hasn’t been in great form anyway. They brought in Chamika Karunaratne and Maheesh Theekshana in their last match but it didn’t quite work out, so expect them to go back to the previous combination and play another batter.
Probable XI: Pathum Nissanka, Kusal Mendis (wk), Kamil Mishara, Kusal Perera, Charith Asalanka (c), Dasun Shanaka, Kamindu Mendis, Wanindu Hasaranga, Dunith Wellalage, Dushmantha Chameera, Nuwan Thushara
Did you know?
– Dasun Shanaka now has the most ducks (14) by any player in T20Is.
– Wanindu Hasaranga has the most wickets [38] in overs 7-15 in T20Is since 2024.
– Abhishek Sharma has hit 12 sixes in this Asia Cup. All of Sri Lanka’s batters have combined to hit as many.
Who said what:
“We have discussed it, but everything said and done, our guys have been playing spin regularly. They know how to handle the spinners irrespective of the conditions. Having said that, they have some good world-class bowlers in their line-up. If our guys have a positive mindset, we can overcome that” – Thilina Kandamby, Sri Lanka batting coach, on playing India’s spinners
“If we bowl 12-14 good overs, we will win on most occasions” – Suryakumar Yadav, India captain, after beating Bangladesh in their last match
© Cricbuzz
