Vaibhav Suryavanshi, Ayush Mhatre likely for India A team

The Asian Cricket Council (ACC) has rebranded the Emerging Teams Asia Cup as the Asia Cup Rising Stars Championship. The seventh edition of the tournament, which began in 2013, will kick off on November 14 in Doha, Qatar.

Groups, formats, dates & teams

Just like the 2024 edition, 8 teams will feature in the tournament: India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Oman, the UAE, and Hong Kong. Just like the team, the format remains the same: T20. There won’t be a Super Four stage, and the top two teams from each group will advance to the semifinal. 15 matches will be played, with the final scheduled for November 23.

The teams will be divided into two groups of four, like the Men’s 2025 Asia Cup, and unsurprisingly, India and Pakistan have been placed in the same group. This happened in the last edition as well. Oman and the UAE will be the other two teams in their group; Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and Hong Kong will be in the other group. This means there will be just one confirmed India vs Pakistan match, with a semifinal or final clash also expected.

According to Cricbuzz, the Test-playing nations will send their ‘A’ teams, while the remaining three will send full-strength teams for the 2025 Asia Cup Rising Stars Championship. The same had happened in the last edition as well.

Suryavanshi & Mhatre to get India A call-up

In the last edition, players like Tilak Varma, Abhishek Sharma, and Anshul Kamboj had played for India. This time around, a different crop of players is likely to be selected. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) might send youngsters like Vaibhav Suryavanshi and Ayush Mhatre.

Both have played domestic cricket for their respective states and are touted to be the future of Indian cricket. Perhaps we’ll see some more Under-19 players, and others like Priyansh Arya and Vipraj Nigam might also get selected.