Asia Cup Rising Stars 2025: India-A takes on Bangladesh-A with eyes set on a spot in the final
India-A will need a heftier contribution from its top-order batters to support in-form Vaibhav Suryavanshi when it takes on Bangladesh-A in their Rising Stars Asia Cup semifinal here on Friday.
Suryavanshi, the second-highest run-maker (201 runs) in this T20 event, has done most of the heavy-lifting, but other batters in the line-up, such as skipper Jitesh Sharma, Naman Dhir, Priyansh Arya and Nehal Wadhera, have not exactly set the tournament ablaze so far.
Bangladesh, on the other hand, has been a tricky side so far.
It has bowled out a capable Afghanistan-A side, which included Allah Ghazanfar and Sediqullah Atal, for a paltry 78 and then stretched a strong Sri Lanka-A all the way till the last over of a league match.
India will thus have to get its act together against pacer Ripon Mondol and left-arm spinner Rakibul Hasan, the recent additions to Bangladesh’s senior T20 sides.
India’s bowling, however, has been in top shape in this tournament. Left-arm pacer Gurjapneet Singh is the leading Indian bowler with five wickets from three outings.
Gurjapneet has received reasonable backing from left-arm spinner Harsh Dubey and leg-spinner Suyash Sharma, who have taken three wickets apiece from as many matches.
Harsh has also shown his utility as a batter, making a fifty against Oman in a must-win game when he got a promotion to No. 4.
“I had started as an opener and I know that batsman is still there inside of me. I wanted to convert this chance (against Oman). We want to play the kind of game that we played against the UAE and Oman, and we are confident of winning the trophy for the team,” Harsh told bcci.tv.
But his bowling skills will be more in demand against Bangladesh-A, which will have its batting revolving around opener Habibur Rahman Sohan and skipper Akbar Ali.
Beyond the pair, Bangladesh’s batting has looked vulnerable, and India-A will want to exploit it to storm into the final for a possible meeting with Pakistan, which locks horns with Sri Lanka in the second semifinal, later on Friday.
The final is scheduled on Sunday.
Published on Nov 20, 2025
