India National Cricket Team is gearing up for the Asia Cup 2025 which starts on September 9 in UAE.
The team led by Suryakumar Yadav and 15 players is training in Bengaluru. They will reach Dubai by September 4 and their first match is against UAE in Dubai on September 10. Almost everyone in the team has cleared the fitness tests at BCCI’s training centre.
Instead of meeting up in Mumbai like they do every time, the players will fly directly to Dubai from their home cities by September 4. In the past everyone except in special cases used to gather at BCCI headquarters in Mumbai and travel together.
This time it’s to make travel easier for them. They need to be in Dubai by evening of September 4 and their first practice session is on September 5 at ICC Academy in Dubai. They will have couple of days to settle down and get ready for the tournament. BCCI has made this change to reduce unnecessary travel and fatigue.
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According to a senior BCCI official quoted by PTI, everyone needs to be in Dubai by evening of September 4 and practice will start the next day at ICC Academy. He said it makes sense for players to fly straight to Dubai from where they live considering the travel logistics.
He also said that while some players will come from Mumbai, it doesn’t make sense to ask others to travel to Mumbai first and then to Dubai, especially since the flight to Dubai is pretty short compared to other international flights.
Another reason could be that BCCI wants to keep the team away from media in Mumbai. There’s a lot of noise and furore among fans, former players and politicians about India-Pakistan match in Asia Cup 2025. BCCI might be trying to avoid any distractions before the tournament.
The team will start their Asia Cup 2025 campaign against UAE on September 10, followed by Pakistan on September 14 and Oman on September 19.
Some of the players picked for Asia Cup are playing in Duleep Trophy. Arshdeep Singh and Harshit Rana are playing for North Zone and Kuldeep Yadav is with Central Zone.Prasidh Krishna and Washington Sundar are not travelling with the team as net bowlers.
