India are all set to take on Oman in their last league stage game of the Asia Cup 2025. Notably, for the first time in the tournament, the ‘Men in Blue’ are playing at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi.
So far, Suryakumar Yadav and his men have taken the field in the Dubai International Cricket Stadium and have been brilliant there.
India are playing their 250th T20I match and they will be looking to make the occasion special with another authoritative performance. This also marks the first-ever game on the international stage between these two nations.
Toss update and team changes for India
Ahead of the match, the Indian team has won the toss and is batting first. Their playing XI has featured a couple of changes from the last game. Harshit Rana and Arshdeep Singh are getting their first match of the tournament. The two players who have been rested are Jasprit Bumrah and Varun Chakaravarthy.
The decision makes perfect sense as this game is of little consequence to the tournament. While Oman have already been eliminated from the tournament, India have made it to the Super Four with two dominating shows against the UAE and Pakistan.
This becomes a crucial chance for Harshit Rana and Arhsdeep Singh to stake their claims for the later stages of the tournament and also impress the selectors for the upcoming T20 World Cup 2025. The KKR pacer will get a chance to leave a mark with the new ball, while Arshdeep’s death over skills will be put to the test if that is required in the game.
The Indian management is looking to serve two purposes in this match. While their batters get some valuable time in the middle before the all-important Pakistan match on Sunday, they also get to know the depth of their bench when it comes to bowling.
There had been talks around Bumrah to be rested for the match, given the workload management of the pacer. Varun’s call might be a surprise, but Gambhir might have taken the call so that one of his main weapons in the middle-overs also gets rest. This also means that players like Rinku Singh and Jitesh Sharma might not get a match in the tournament.
Here is a look at the playing XIs of India and Oman
India XI: Shubman Gill, Abhishek Sharma, Suryakumar Yadav (c), Tilak Varma, Hardik Pandya, Shivam Dube, Sanju Samson (wk), Axar Patel, Harshit Rana, Arshdeep Singh, Kuldeep Yadav.
Oman XI: Aamir Kaleem, Jatinder Singh(c), Hammad Mirza, Vinayak Shukla(w), Shah Faisal, Zikria Islam, Aryan Bisht, Mohammad Nadeem, Shakeel Ahmed, Samay Shrivastava, Jiten Ramanandi