Category World News

The top men’s cricket teams in Asia will come together after two years to compete in the Asian Cricket Council’s (ACC) T20 Asia Cup 2025 from Tuesday.

Several new captains will be leading their charges with world T20 champions and Asia Cup holders India to be led by Suryakumar Yadav, while Charith Asalanka will be at the helm of 2023 runners-up Sri Lanka.

Here’s what you need to know about the teams and their full squads for the tournament:

Which teams are playing in the Asia Cup 2025?

In addition to the five permanent members of the ACC – India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Afghanistan – three other teams have qualified for the 2025 edition: Hong Kong, Oman, and the United Arab Emirates. They are divided into two groups of four each:

Group A: India, Pakistan, Oman, UAE
Group B: Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Hong Kong

Will Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma play in the Asia Cup 2025?

No. The two former India captains announced their retirements after leading their team to their second T20 World Cup title in the West Indies in 2024. It was Kohli’s first T20 world title, while Rohit lifted the trophy for the second time, having been part of India’s triumphant side at the inaugural T20 World Cup in 2007 in South Africa.

Suryakumar took over the T20 captaincy reins from Rohit in August 2024, while the likes of Abhishek Sharma and Shubman Gill have replaced both top-order batters.

Who is Pakistan’s captain at Asia Cup 2025?

The revolving-door nature of Pakistan cricket means the captain’s hat changes hands – or heads – fairly quickly.

Batting star Babar Azam had the role given and taken from him twice in the space of 11 months in 2023-24, while Mohammad Rizwan held the role for five months.

The incumbent, Salman Ali Agha, took over in March and has since led Pakistan to two series wins and one series loss.

He will continue in the leadership role at the Asia Cup.

Will Wanindu Hasaranga play in the Asia Cup 2025?

Yes, the Sri Lankan leg-spin bowling all-rounder has been declared fit for the tournament following his recovery from a hamstring injury. The 28-year-old missed out on the 2023 edition at home and will be keen to make an impact as Sri Lanka seek a seventh Asia Cup title.

𝐀 𝐧𝐞𝐰 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐛𝐞𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐬 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐌𝐞𝐧 𝐢𝐧 𝐆𝐫𝐞𝐞𝐧 🇵🇰

A fresh-looking squad gears up for the #ACCMensAsiaCup2025 – with all eyes on Salman Ali Agha, who takes the reins as skipper in his first major tournament 👊#ACC pic.twitter.com/UGvL8aFOis

What are the full squads of all Asia Cup 2025 teams?

Afghanistan

Rashid Khan (captain), Rahmanullah Gurbaz (wicketkeeper), Ibrahim Zadran, Darwish Rasooli, Sediqullah Atal, Azmatullah Omarzai, Karim Janat, Mohammad Nabi, Gulbadin Naib, Sharafuddin Ashraf, Mohammad Ishaq, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, AM Ghazanfar, Noor Ahmad, Fareed Ahmad, Naveen-ul-Haq, Fazalhaq Farooqi.

Bangladesh

Litton Das (captain, wicketkeeper), Tanzid Hasan, Parvez Hossain Emon, Saif Hassan, Towhid Hridoy, Jaker Ali, Shamim Hossain, Nurul Hasan, Mahedi Hasan, Rishad Hossain, Nasum Ahmed, Mustafizur Rahman, Tanzim Hasan, Taskin Ahmed, Shoriful Islam, Mohammad Saifuddin.

Hong Kong

Yasim Murtaza (captain), Babar Hayat, Zeeshan Ali (wicketkeeper), Nizakat Khan Mohammad, Nasrulla Rana, Martin Coetzee, Anshuman Rath, Kalhan Marc Challu, Ayush Ashish Shukla, Mohammad Aizaz Khan, Ateeq ul Rehman Iqbal, Kinchit Shah (wicketkeeper), Adil Mehmood, Haroon Arshad Mohammad, Ali Hassan, Shahid Wasif (wicketkeeper), Mohammad Ghazanfar, Mohammad Waheed, Anas Khan, Ehsan Khan.

India

Suryakumar Yadav (captain), Shubman Gill, Hardik Pandya, Arshdeep Singh, Abhishek Sharma, Tilak Varma, Shivam Dube , Axar Patel, Jitesh Sharma (wicketkeeper), Jasprit Bumrah, Varun Chakravarthy, Kuldeep Yadav, Harshit Rana, Rinku Singh, Sanju Samson (wicketkeeper).

Oman

Jatinder Singh (captain), Hammad Mirza (wicketkeeper), Vinayak Shukla (wicketkeeper), Sufyan Yousuf, Ashish Odedara, Aamir Kaleem, Mohammed Nadeem, Sufyan Mehmood, Aryan Bisht, Karan Sonavale, Zikriya Islam, Hassnain Shah, Faisal Shah, Muhammed Imran, Nadeem Khan, Shakeel Ahmed, Samay Shrivastava.

Pakistan

Salman Agha (captain), Abrar Ahmed, Faheem Ashraf, Fakhar Zaman, Haris Rauf, Hasan Ali, Hasan Nawaz, Hussain Talat, Khushdil Shah, Mohammad Haris (wicketkeeper), Mohammad Nawaz, Mohammad Wasim, Sahibzada Farhan, Saim Ayub, Salman Mirza, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Sufiyan Muqeem.

Sri Lanka

Charith Asalanka (captain), Pathum Nissanka, Kusal Mendis (wicketkeeper), Kusal Perera (wicketkeeper), Nuwanidu Fernando, Kamindu Mendis, Kamil Mishara, Dasun Shanaka, Wanindu Hasaranga, Dunith Wellalage, Chamika Karunaratne, Maheesh Theekshana, Dushmantha Chameera, Binura Fernando, Nuwan Thushara, Matheesha Pathirana.

United Arab Emirates

Trump’s immigration crackdown is being investigated by Fault Lines, which ranges from arrests in court to deportations without due process.

In the past week, Russia’s refineries were hit severely by Ukraine, worsening its gasoline shortages and causing Moscow to impose a ban on petroleum products exports.

Russia launched a deadly attack on Kyiv in response, and Ukraine’s situation looked desperate as it awaited its turn to surrender.

Vladimir Putin, the president of Russia, suggested that Russian energy exports to China and India were on the rise during his speech at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit, but reports suggested that Moscow is holding onto its crude oil for a while.

In order to broker a ceasefire, Ukraine’s European and regional allies are holding a meeting on Thursday to discuss finalizing security arrangements, and they are also urging US President Donald Trump to use sanctions to pressure Putin into direct talks with Kyiv.

Russian offensive operations

On September 1, Russia redeployed elite units, including marines and paratroopers, from Ukraine’s northern Sumy region to Donetsk, suggesting that it may be reviving its efforts to defend the city of Pokrovsk, which Ukraine has identified as a crucial strategic goal for Russia since August 2024.

After fierce Ukrainian resistance, Russia gave up on an offensive for Dobropillia, a town whose capture would have encircled Pokrovsk from the north.

Last week, Dobropillia and Pokrovsk, along with Lyman, a city further north, were confirmed by the commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, Oleksandr Syrskii.

The so-called “fortress belt” of cities, which includes Sloviansk, Kramatorsk, Druzhivka, and Konstiantynivka, is located between Lyman and Pokrovsk, which is considered to be one of Ukraine’s most heavily fortified regions of the front, suggesting that Russia may be planning to encircle the area rather than launch a direct assault.

Russian Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov stated on Saturday that the Russian “unstoppable offensive” had taken over 3,500 square kilometers (1,350 square miles) and 149 settlements since March and that Putin would travel to Tianjin, China, on Sunday to attend the SCO summit.

The Institute for the Study of War, a think tank based in Washington, concluded that since March, Russian gains have totaled 2, 346 square kilometers and 130 settlements, according to the Institute for the Study of War.

Russian Defense Minister Andrei Belousov claimed on Friday that “we were liberating 300 to 400 square kilometers monthly, and this figure has increased to 600 to 700 square kilometers.” The ISW disagreed. According to The ISW, Russia had taken 445 square kilometers in July and about 500 square kilometers in August.

Andriy Kovalenko, the head of the Center for Countering Disinformation in Ukraine, disagreed with Gerasimov’s claim that the north had taken up all of Kupiansk.

On the Telegram messaging service, he wrote, “All the fantasies of Russian war correspondents about control over half of Kupiansk up to the center do not correspond to reality.” “Propagandists do their job first, then runners with flags run around while a drone records them, and then propagandists film them.”

For the first time since 2022, Russia enjoyed operational success in the western Black Sea, losing both control of Zmiinyi Island and its flagship guided missile cruiser Moskva.

In a drone strike at the Danube river’s mouth on August 28, the Russian Ministry of Defense announced the sinking of the Ukrainian reconnaissance ship Simferopol. A ship matched the Simferopol, and separate footage captured an explosion. Surface kamikaze drone footage depicts an approach.

In the western Black Sea, Ukraine was the first to successfully sink Russian ships using naval drones. This may be the first time that Russia has successfully applied the same strategy to waters off the coast of the European Union.

Russia launched its largest aerial assault on Kyiv on the same day, aiming 598 drones and 31 missiles there.

After two missiles destroyed a residential building in the Darnytskyi neighbourhood, the death toll eventually reached 26, including four children. The following day, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the president of Ukraine, deposited flowers there.

Russia launched 2, 189 drones, and 108 missiles at Ukraine’s front-line cities between August 28 and September 3. 88 percent of the drones and 79 percent of the missiles were intercepted by Ukraine.

Russian refineries targeted by Ukrainians

On August 28, Ukraine returned to the Black Sea when its military intelligence struck the ship with two drones, making it inoperable.

But it made primarily efforts in Russia.

Ukrainian drones also targeted the Kuibyshev refinery in the Samara region of Russia, which is located 1, 000 kilometers east of Ukraine. Afipsky refinery in Krasnodar Krai, located 400 kilometers outside of Ukraine, was also struck by them.

According to Ukrainian officials, the two refineries are essential to the Russian war machine because they process more than 13 million tonnes of oil annually, accounting for just under 5% of the country’s total.

According to industry sources, Kuibyshev’s two main refining units had been hit and had stopped all oil processing. Following a Ukrainian strike on August 2, processing had only resumed a week prior.

The Krasnodar and Syrzan refineries, both of which have previously been struck, were hit by drones on Friday, according to Kovalenko. Officials from Krasnodar acknowledged a fire at their facility after the footage obtained revealed the Syrzan hit.

According to Reuters, Ukraine reportedly accounted for 17% of Russian refining capacity in August alone.

The figure was 21%, according to Robert “Magyar” Brovdi, the head of Ukraine’s Unmanned Systems Forces.

Russia extended its export ban on refined petroleum products by a month until October 31 in an effort to maintain “a stable environment in the domestic fuel market.” Since March 1, the ban has been in effect.

Russian authorities have documented occupied territory rationing in Russia. Because it couldn’t process the crude oil itself, Russia announced it would try to increase its daily exports by 200, 000 barrels.

Even so, crude oil is sold for less than refined goods, but reports last week suggested that Russia was actively discounting its crude oil in an effort to attract customers. Indian refiners were offered a $4 per barrel discount from the previous week’s $2.5 and $1.7, respectively, in accordance with Bloomberg’s report.

Russia’s exports, which provide money for its war economy, have also been restricted by Ukraine.

Due to Ukrainian drone damage to the pipeline, officials at the Ust-Luga export terminal near St. Petersburg announced last week that the terminal would be operating at half of its capacity.

Without using Western weapons, Ukraine has been developing its own long-distance kill vehicles, which are frequently used only to attack deep inside Russia.

Through direct mass murders and the physical destruction of Gaza’s infrastructure, Israel is complicit in the United States’ involvement in the genocide in the country. Israel performs the dirty work. Through its veto power at the UN, the US government funds it and provides diplomatic support. Through Lavender, Palantir creates the artificial intelligence needed for effective mass murder. The Israeli army receives core tech infrastructure from Microsoft through the Nimbus&nbsp initiative, Google and Amazon, and Azure cloud services.

As a public-private partnership between Israel and the US, this commemorates war crimes in the twenty-first century. The UN, Amnesty International, the Red Cross, Save the Children, and many others have all confirmed Israel’s widespread starvation of Gaza’s residents. The Norwegian Refugee Council and 100 other organizations have been calling for the Israeli government to end its use of food aid. For the first time in the Middle East, mass starvation has been confirmed.

The hunger is devastating in scope. More than two million people are routinely denied food by Israel. At least 132, 000 children under the age of five are at risk of dying from acute malnutrition, and more than half a million Palestinians are suffering from catastrophic hunger. In a recent article titled “Starvation is Everywhere,” Haaretz enthralled readers and covered the scale of the horror. The Israeli army frequently fires at those who have access to food distribution centers.

The intention to starve Israel has always existed, as a former US ambassador to Israel recently pointed out. There is no one who feeds its enemies, according to Israel’s Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu. Whoever doesn’t evacuate, don’t let them, according to minister Bezalel Smotrich, who just recently said. They can either surrender or die without water or electricity. We want this, exactly.

However, US representatives at the UN continue to deny the facts and provide cover for Israel’s war crimes despite these glaring declarations of genocide. In 2024, the US vetoed Palestine’s membership in the UN. Another violation of international law is now denied to Palestinian leaders who want to travel to the UN in September.

The US has used its veto of Israel’s genocide against the Palestinians and to thwart even the most basic humanitarian measures with its veto of its own in the UN Security Council (UNSC). Before the Israel-US murder machine, the world is horrified but appears paralyzed. Even in the face of US indolence, the world still has the ability to act. The US will be completely silent about its illegal cooperation with Israel.

Let’s be clear. The Palestinian people’s majority is supported by humanity. 172 nations, representing more than 90% of the world’s population, voted in favor of Palestine’s right to self-determination in December. In terms of opposition, Israel and the US were essentially at odds with one another. Similar sentiments are frequently expressed in opposition to Israel’s actions and in support of Palestine.

Israel’s protracted government now relies solely on US support, but that may not last. Despite Trump’s intransigence and the US government’s attempts to silence pro-Palestinian voices, only 33% of Americans support the UN’s recognition of Palestine. Additionally, 60% of Americans oppose Israel’s actions in Gaza.

What are some start-up actions that the world can take.

First, Turkiye has set the right course by removing all ties to Israel in terms of trade, shipping, and air travel. A State of Palestine is admitted to the UN as the 194th member, with borders on June 4, 1967, and Turkiye is right to treat it as such until Israel’s mass starvation ends. Following Turkiye’s example, other states should follow right away.

Second, all UN member states that have not yet recognized Palestine should do so. 147 nations have so far endorsed Palestine. Even despite the US’s vehement objections, hundreds more should attend the UN summit on Palestine on September 22.

Third, the Arab countries that signed the Abraham Accords, Bahrain, Morocco, Sudan, and the United Arab Emirates, should suspend diplomatic ties with Israel until the State of Palestine is admitted to the UN and the Gaza siege is over.

Fourth, the UN General Assembly (UNGA) should remove Israel from the UNGA until its murderous siege of Gaza, using the precedent of suspending South Africa under its apartheid regime, by a vote of two-thirds of the members present and voting. The UNGA does not grant the US a veto.

Fifth, UN member states should halt exporting all technology services that support the conflict until the UNSC approves Palestine’s membership. Consumers around the world should be angry with companies like Amazon and Microsoft that continue to support the Israeli military in a genocide.

In addition, the UNGA should send a UN Protection Force to occupied West Bank and Gaza. The UNSC typically authorizes a protection force, but in this instance, the US will veto the council’s veto. Another approach is available.

When the UNSC is in a deadlock, the UNGA has the authority to act under the “Uniting for Peace” mechanism. The UNGA would be able to address the issue in its resumpted 10th emergency special session on the Israel-Palestine conflict following a UNSC session and the almost unavoidable US veto. In that case, the UNGA can authorize a protection force in response to a State of Palestine’s urgent request by a two-thirds majority, which is unrestricted by the US veto. The UN Emergency Force (UNEF) was given the UNGA’s permission to enter Egypt in 1956 to protect it from the United Kingdom, France, and Israel’s ongoing invasion.

The protection force would enter Gaza to obtain emergency humanitarian aid for the country’s famined population at Palestine’s invitation. The UN protection force would be authorized to defend itself and the Palestinians in Gaza if Israel launched an attack. It’s unknown whether Israel and the US would dare to join a UNGA-mandated force in a fight to save the ailing Palestinians.

Israel has crossed the clear line between starving people to death and shooting them as they wait in line for food. There is neither time to lose nor a new line to cross. As it hasn’t in decades, the family of nations is being tested and called into action.