The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on Tuesday announced the India A squad for the upcoming Rising Star Asia Cup. The BCCI men’s team will send a 15-member India A squad under wicket-keeper batter Jitesh Sharma to the Rising Stars Asia Cup 2025 in Doha, Qatar from November 14 to 23, 2025. The selection emphasizes the board’s intention to develop and bring new talents into the spotlight through international tournaments.
What is Rising Stars Asia Cup?
The Rising Stars Asia Cup 2025 can be considered as a youth or development level Asia Cup tournament in which “A squads” or emerging squads or the young future players of Asian teams compete against each other – not the senior national teams.
The tournament is therefore organised with the objective of providing a platform to the young cricketers of the Asian countries to get the feel of the international cricket pressure, conditions, travel, and knockout matches among others before actually entering the full international cricket.
India A squad for Rising Stars Asia Cup T20 tournament
Priyansh Arya, Vaibhav Suryavanshi, Nehal Wadhera, Naman Dhir (vice-capt), Suryansh Shedge, Jitesh Sharma (capt, wk), Ramandeep Singh, Harsh Dubey, Ashutosh Sharma, Yash Thakur, Gurjapneet Singh, Vijay Kumar Vyshak, Yudhvir Singh, Abishek Porel (wk), Suyash Sharm
- Stand-by players: Gurnoor Brar, Kumar Kushagra, Tanush Kotian, Sameer Rizvi, Shaik Rasheed
Leadership and Key Picks
For this tournament, Jitesh Sharma has been the one to take the captaincy while Naman Dhir will be the vice-captain. Among the players are some of the IPL 2025 breakout stars, especially the two opening batsmen Priyansh Arya and Vaibhav Suryavanshi – who is just 14 years old and has already been recognized for great domestic performance leading to his first call-up to the senior squad.
Squad Composition
The squad perfectly mixes youthful players and experienced ones, having a middle-order composed of Nehal Wadhera, Suryansh Shedge, Ramandeep Singh, and Ashutosh Sharma, while the fast bowlers are Gurjapneet Singh, Yash Thakur, Vijay Kumar Vyshak, and Yudhvir Singh Charak. Abhishek Porel comes as the second keeper along with Jitesh. The spinners are Suyash Sharma and Harsh Dubey.
The group placement is: Group B with Oman, UAE, and Pakistan A.
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Tournament Schedule
- Dates: November 14-23, 2025
- Venue: Doha (Qatar)
- Group B: India A, Oman, UAE, Pakistan A
Key Matches:
- India A vs UAE – Nov 14
- India A vs Pakistan A – Nov 16
- India A vs Oman – Nov 18
ACC Rising Stars tournament schedule
- Nov 14 – Oman vs Pak; Ind vs UAE
- Nov 15 – Ban vs HK; Afg vs SL
- Nov 16 – Oman vs UAE; Ind vs Pak
- Nov 17 – HK vs SL; Afg vs Ban
- Nov 18 – Pak vs UAE; Ind vs Oman
- Nov 19 – Afg vs HK; Ban vs SL
- Nov 21 – Semi-finals: A1 vs B2; B1 vs A2
- Nov 23 – Final
The announcement of India A’s squad makes it very clear that the BCCI is developing for the future and is willing to rely on the young players. The fans now have new stars to support who are not just the ones in the senior team, and the selectors are ready with their next generation to represent.
Written By:- Manjunath S