Dubai: India captain Suryakumar Yadav won the toss and chose to field first as the Men in Blue faced Pakistan in the Asia Cup 2025 final on Sunday. The two teams maintained a cool stance, avoiding handshakes, continuing the tense atmosphere from their previous clashes in the tournament.

Why the cold vibes between India and Pakistan?

Tensions between the neighbours have been high since their earlier matches in the competition, which featured political posturing and aggressive on-field behaviour at the same Dubai venue.

In the group match, Suryakumar had refused to shake hands with Pakistan captain Salman Agha, and the teams maintained the same stance in the Super Four clash.

Pakistan opener Sahibzada Farhan had also caused controversy with a gun celebration after his half-century.

This final marks the first Asia Cup final between India and Pakistan in the tournament’s 41-year history. The two sides only meet in multi-nation events at neutral venues due to the absence of a bilateral series for over a decade.

What are the team changes?

India, unbeaten in six matches of the Asia Cup, made three changes from their previous win. All-rounder Hardik Pandya missed out due to injury, and Jasprit Bumrah, Shivam Dube, and Rinku Singh were included in the playing XI.

Jasprit Bumrah, Shivam Dube, and Rinku Singh came in place of Pandya, Harshit Rana, and Arshdeep Singh. Pakistan, meanwhile, fielded an unchanged team from their win over Bangladesh. Captain Salman Agha noted that he would have batted first if his team had won the toss.

How does the history between the teams look?

India won the previous edition of the Asia Cup played in the 50-over format.

This tournament is being seen as a key preparation event for the T20 World Cup, to be co-hosted by India and Sri Lanka in February-March. India had comfortably won both of their games in the current tournament leading up to the final.

What are the playing XIs?

India: Abhishek Sharma, Shubman Gill, Suryakumar Yadav (capt), Tilak Varma, Sanju Samson (wk), Shivam Dube, Rinku Singh, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Varun Chakaravarthy

Pakistan: Sahibzada Farhan, Fakhar Zaman, Saim Ayub, Salman Agha (capt), Hussain Talat, Mohammad Haris (wk), Mohammad Nawaz, Faheem Ashraf, Shaheen Afridi, Haris Rauf, Abrar Ahmed