Asia Cup 2025: Kuldeep bags four as India demolish UAE in 17.4 overs

I took just 106 balls for India to begin their defence of the Asia Cup with the most comprehensive of wins. It took them just 79 balls to bowl UAE out, and just 27 to chase down their target.

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UAE’s 57 was the lowest total any team had achieved against India in T20Is. India’s 4.3-over chase was their quickest in T20Is.

UAE came into this match on the back of encouraging displays against Pakistan and Afghanistan in the tri-series they recently hosted, but all that promise came to nothing against the relentless quality of India’s bowling, with Kuldeep Yadav taking four wickets in no time to celebrate his return to action after a long tour of England spent entirely on the bench.

Thereafter, it was just a question of how quickly India would get to their target, and the answer — mostly delivered by their new opening combination of old buddies Abhishek Sharma and Shubman Gill.

A lot of interest surrounded India’s selection for this game, with particularly intense debate surrounding their wicketkeeper, bowling-attack composition, and No. 8. These were India’s choices:

Gill displaced Sanju Samson from the opening position as expected, but Samson kept the keeping gloves ahead of Jitesh Sharma. India picked both their wristspinners, Kuldeep and Varun Chakravarthy, and picked the batting allrounder Shivam Dube to give them genuine depth until No. 8, but this meant they only had one specialist quick in Jasprit Bumrah.

Some of these choices were surprises. The bigger surprise, perhaps, was that India won the toss — after 15 straight toss losses across formats.