What is the best bowling combination for India in Asia Cup 2025?

The Asia Cup 2025 is a unique challenge for Team India, captained by Suryakumar Yadav, and a familiar one at the same time. Following their victory in the T20 World Cup 2024, the Men in Blue are eager for their next significant trophy. With mounting tension and growing expectations, this tournament provides India a further opportunity to hone their array of strategies while fielding a few new combinations. In the UAE, with only three weeks to compete, there must be enough balance in the squad, batters and bowlers alike, to remain competitive.

The two venues, Sheikh Zayed Cricket Stadium (Abu Dhabi) and Dubai International Stadium have pushed towards batters and pacers in the last 12 months.  In 29 T20 games across three separate competitions, just 55% of wickets fell and the majority of matches resulted in high-scoring slug-fests. All the indicators suggest that bowlers will need to go hard to earn favorable outcomes and India's selection of the bowling attack will be critical. The balance between spin and pace will be critical to securing results in these run-favoured playing conditions.

See Also: India's squad selection for Asia Cup 2025 delayed in Mumbai for this reason

With T20 format tournament, this is the best chance for India to play with five bowler balanced attack. It would be best to have at least two frontline spinners in order to ensure control of the middle overs, and two all-rounders to deepen the batting order while having at least three specialist pacers in the XI allows them to adjust to different opponents in the tournament. There are a lot of ways that India could think and strategize this to ensure that the world champs are well prepared for the Asia Cup 2025 T20 tournament, which could have seven matches in three weeks!

Arshdeep Singh 

As a left-arm pacer, he has a rare ability to swing the new ball both ways, meaning he is especially dangerous against left-handers. His skills would take him into the death overs as well, and he is relentless in using a range of clever variations to deceive batters. This all-round skill gives him the ability to be effective at all stages of the T20 innings - a valuable asset to any team. 

He goes into the Asia Cup 2025 after an impressive IPL 2025 season with Punjab Kings which he distinguished himself as one of the most consistent performers. In his 17 matches, he took 21 wickets at an excellent economy of 8. He showed the ability to combine control and taking wickets. Interestingly, of the 240 wickets taken by bowlers at the Abu Dhabi and Dubai venues recently, 76 were taken by left-arm seamers. That should only help his confidence for the tournament.

Prasidh Krishna

Opting for Harshit Rana over a vastly improved T20 bowler like Prasidh Krishna could prove to be a questionable decision by the Indian team management. Krishna’s Purple Cap triumph in IPL 2025, where he picked up 25 wickets, was not a fluke. Instead, it showcased the transformation in his T20 game, where he displayed control and maturity that had previously been missing. His performances underline consistency rather than being a one-off success.

The Karnataka pacer has been remarkably disciplined with his lengths, frequently targeting the full and good-length areas across 15 matches this season. At the same time, he has cleverly used the short ball as a reliable stock option to keep batters guessing. What makes him even more effective is his sharp use of pace variations, a skill he has mastered over the past four months. This evolution has made Krishna one of the most dependable fast bowlers in India’s T20 setup.

Hardik Pandya

Hardik Pandya is a stands-alone player in the Indian national team when talking about match situations. His brilliance yet again shone in IPL 2025 in important moments, both bat and ball. Pandya took 14 wickets in 15 matches at 24 run average, meaning he was able to take wickets in the most important moments for his team. His dynamic game is still revolving around him being one of the best all-rounders in T20 cricket, and he continues game after game to be the most trusted.

As a bowler he understands high pressure match situations, and welcomes that responsibility of bowling in the most critical over of the match. Even when four boundaries on the trot is scored, he hurdle won't be shaken and control his mind and temperament, quickly resetting his game plan. This fearless and composed demeanor allows him to remain 'locked in' as much as he possibly can in the match scenario, and expects matters like the moment are good will, makes him an unstinting asset in India's plans ahead of important tournaments.

Varun Chakravarthy

Since his return to international cricket after a near four-year layoff, Varun's comeback has been nothing short of a fairytale, not only in terms of performance level, but also improvement in his bowling. Varun made an immediate impression by taking 14 wickets from five matches against England, followed by a further nine wickets at the Dubai International Stadium during Champions Trophy 2025. This turnaround came after having practiced his variety, something that he did not have the necessary accuracy for during the 2021 T20 World Cup in the UAE. Varun is very evidently a bowler grown.

Despite a mixed IPL 2025 season with the Kolkata Knight Riders, Varun was still able to be impactful, claiming 17 wickets in 13 matches at an economy rate of 7.6, demonstrating consistency throughout. Varun's ability to deliver for both franchise and country shows how much he has come along as a bowler, and he clearly looks to be, once again, a vital cog in India's bowling line-up in limited overs cricket.

Axar Patel

India's T20I vice-captain may not have the most dazzling numbers on paper but has an incredible knack of coming to the fore at important times which makes him indispensable. His ability to break partnerships and create breakthroughs, when the team needs them most, has invariably turned games in India's favor. He remains one of the most dependable options in that format owing to his knowledge and ability to remain composed under pressure. 

Asia Cup 2025 could be the perfect tournament for Axar Patel to add to his inauspicious record in that format. The pitches in Dubai and Abu Dhabi have been particularly fruitful for left-arm spinners; in the last 29 games, there were 48 wickets taken by left-arm spinners- 60% of all spin dismissals-. However, the vast majority of these dismissals were a result of finger spinners who predominantly rely on drift rather than turn, which is Axar's biggest strength. The tournament opens up an ideal opportunity for him to enhance his record further.

Kuldeep Yadav

The dependable left-arm wrist-spinner has been an integral cog in India's bowling unit for many years, whilst continuing to provide valuable services in the T20 arena. His power of consistency and run management has proved an incredibly dependable option for the team in match defining moments, and even though conditions change, he has transitioned his game well  and proved effective in all phases.

While IPL 2025 was considered a quiet season in a relative sense by his high standards, he has still managed to take 15 wickets in 14 matches. Most importantly, his economy rate of 7.07 remained impressive given that he is able to restrict batters whilst still providing necessary breakthroughs; therefore, if the ability to both control and take wickets is the desired skill, he is a huge asset leading into the Asia Cup 2025.