Follow UsThe Indian Asia Cup 2025 squad was announced on August 19, and it did not feature Yashasvi Jaiswal. He scored runs by the bucket in the 2023, 2024 and 2025 IPL seasons.
However, despite his magnificent showing, the left-hander was ignored in favour of Shubman Gill, India’s newly appointed Test skipper. Could Jaiswal have been a better choice? Well, not just him. Here are three Rajasthan Royals players who could have been selected in India’s Asia Cup 2025 squad.
Jaiswal scored 625 runs in IPL 2023, and followed it up with 435 in IPL 2024 and 559 in IPL 2025. It made him one of the few batters to aggregate more than 400 runs in three consecutive seasons in the league, and to do that at a strike rate of over 150 in each season is just phenomenal.
Gill, too, has scored more than 400 runs in the same three seasons as Jaiswal, but he doesn’t fit the bill as an aggressive opener as Jaiswal does.
Not necessarily a like-for-like replacement, but Vaibhav Suryavanshi packs a decent punch as an India opener. With 236 runs in just seven IPL 2025 games, add to that a century and a fifty and a strike rate of over 200, and you have a solid batter in place.
Without knowing that the batter is just a 14-year-old kid, one would take him over someone with 343 runs in 13 innings at a strike rate of 138. And that someone is Tilak Varma, who is part of India’s Asia Cup 2025 squad.
Answering as to why Jaiswal was picked over Abhishek Sharma, India’s chief selector Ajit Agarkar said that the latter could bowl as well. If it comes down to all-round prowess, RR’s vice captain Riyan Parag is not a bad shout in place of ‘extra batting option’ Rinku Singh in India's Asia Cup 2025 squad.
Parag, who has already played nine T20Is, had back-to-back decent IPL seasons, as, after scoring 573 in IPL 2024, he smashed 393 in the 2025 season. On the other hand, Rinku has had a torrid run in T20s, scoring only 206 and 168 runs in IPL 2025 and 2024, respectively. Parag has seven wickets in IPL history to his name, while Rinku has none.