🏏T20 Asia Cup 2025: India vs Oman, 12th Match, Group A at Abu Dhabi🏏

🏏T20 Asia Cup 2025: India vs Oman, 12th Match, Group B at Abu Dhabi on 19/09/2025 at 8:00 PM IST🏏

India eye time in the middle in dead rubber against Oman

This is the first match between the two teams in any format

At India's optional training session on match eve, nine players turned up and one visual stood out: Gautam Gambhir, stationed behind the nets, closely instructing Harshit Rana during an extended batting stint. In the adjacent net, Arshdeep Singh went about his drills with noticeably less guidance from the head coach and had a much shorter hit. Make of that what you will.

With India already qualified and Oman out of contention, and with the game set in Abu Dhabi, a fair distance from India's base in Dubai, Jasprit Bumrah could well be rested, especially with another Pakistan clash looming in a day's time. That could open the door for either Harshit Rana or Arshdeep Singh, who is sitting on 99 T20I wickets, to get a look-in.

When: Sep 19, 2025, at 06:30 PM LOCAL / 8:00 PM IST

Where: Sheikh Zayed Stadium, Abu Dhabi

What to expect: Haris Rauf, speaking after Pakistan's match against the UAE, called the conditions in Dubai "not easy" for batting but come Abu Dhabi, there might be a bit more in the pitch for shot-making, with the spinners taking a back seat for a while. The temperatures have come down in the city in the last few days but it's still forecast to be around 33 degrees when the teams take the field. High humidity, though, is very much around.

Head to Head: Both teams have never played each other

Team news:

India

Injuries/Unavailability: Everyone is fit and available.

Tactics & matchups: Tilak Varma scored 31 against Pakistan but looked a bit stuck against spin, a reflection of the year he's had. In 2025, he's hit a boundary against spin every eight balls as compared to one every five balls last year. This year, he's making his runs against spin at a strike rate of under 59, which could be a worry going into the T20 World Cup. For now, it's a soft spot that Oman will look to target.

Probable XI: Abhishek Sharma, Shubman Gill, Suryakumar Yadav (c), Tilak Varma, Sanju Samson (wk), Shivam Dube, Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Harshit Rana, Varun Chakaravarthy

Oman:

Injuries/Unavailability: No reported injuries since their match against UAE.

Tactics & matchups: Facing India's spin is going to be a challenge for the middle-order. Since July 2024, no team has picked more wickets with spin than India. While a good batting pitch will come to Oman's rescue in Abu Dhabi, going harder against pace upfront might not be such a bad idea.

Probable XI: Aamir Kaleem, Jatinder Singh (c), Hammad Mirza, Vinayak Shukla (wk), Wasim Ali, Hassnain Shah, Shah Faisal, Aryan Bisht, Shakeel Ahmed, Samay Shrivastava, Jiten Ramanandi

In the spotlight

India have retained Sanju Samson as their wicketkeeper ahead of Jitesh Sharma, trusting him to play an unfamiliar role in the middle order. He has not had a chance to play that role yet in this tournament, though, with DNBs against both UAE and Pakistan. Will he get a chance to bat against Oman?

He's returned an economy rate of just 4.71 through this Asia Cup, and he's been even more frugal in the powerplay, going at just 3.50 across four overs. Shakeel Ahmed has had an excellent tournament so far, but now he's set to face a real pressure test: will Oman continue to use their left-arm spinner with the new ball, with the marauding, left-handed Abhishek Sharma waiting at the top of India's line-up?

Team news

India have played just the one frontline fast bowler in their two matches so far, but the shift from Dubai to slightly less spin-friendly conditions in Abu Dhabi, and the context of this dead rubber, could cause them to change their strategy. In any case, Jasprit Bumrah could be rested, and either one or both of Arshdeep Singh and Harshit Rana could get a look-in. With the middle-order batters not having got much of a chance in the middle so far, India might find it a little harder to give Rinku Singh and Jitesh Sharma a game.

India (probable): 1 Abhishek Sharma, 2 Shubman Gill, 3 Suryakumar Yadav (capt), 4 Tilak Varma, 5 Sanju Samson (wk), 6 Shivam Dube, 7 Hardik Pandya, 8 Axar Patel, 9 Harshit Rana, 10 Arshdeep Singh, 11 Kuldeep Yadav/Varun Chakravarthy

While India played the same XI in their first two games, Oman have used 14 players across theirs. Given how their tournament has panned out so far, with batting collapses against both Pakistan and UAE, it's hard to predict who stays in and who goes out of their XI.

Oman (probable): 1 Jatinder Singh (capt), 2 Aamir Kaleem, 3 Hammad Mirza, 4 Wasim Ali, 5 Aryan Bisht, 6 Vinayak Shukla (wk), 7 Jiten Ramamnandi, 8 Shah Faisal, 9 Shakeel Ahmed, 10 Hassnain Shah, 11 Samay Shrivastava

Thanks for the tag Soni!

Men in Blue, All the very best.

Cheers..

Thank you, Soni, for the thread and for tagging.

Best wishes to Indian team.

Pitch and conditions

Recent history suggests that the pitches in Abu Dhabi don't have quite as much help for spin as those in Dubai do. Since the start of 2023, spinners have averaged below 20 in Dubai and gone at less than 6.5 per over in T20Is; they've averaged over 38 in Abu Dhabi and conceded more than 7.5 per over. The two teams' selections could well reflect this.

Stats and trivia

• This is the first meeting between India and Oman in any format.
• Abhishek (195.40) currently has the best strike rate of any batter with at least 500 T20I runs.
• Arshdeep is India's leading wicket-taker in T20Is. He currently has 99 in 63 matches. If he remains on the bench through this tournament, Hardik Pandya (95) and Jasprit Bumrah (92) have a chance of catching up with or going past him.