Asia Cup 2025 has reached its business end as only two teams are left to fight it out for the ultimate glory. Arch-rivals India and Pakistan will lock horns in the final on Sunday, September 27, at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium.
Reigning champions India head into the final with a 100 per cent win record, while Pakistan's losses came against the Men in Blue, once in the group stage and the second one in the Super Four round.
Pakistan will look to avenge their defeats from earlier and bag their third Asia Cup title, while India would hope to cap off a perfect campaign by lifting the trophy.
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India's journey in the Asia Cup 2025 has been smooth sailing thus far. Except for their final Super Four game against Sri Lanka on Friday, Suryakumar Yadav and Co. were hardly challenged in the competition.
The Men in Blue's batting has been more or less flawless, with Abhishek Sharma being the shining light. Bowling too has been fairly impressive, with Kuldeep Yadav being the star performer.
However, one area where India have miserably failed is fielding in this competition as their horrible catching performances have come under the scanner.
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How many catches have India dropped in the Asia Cup 2025?
India have dropped 13 catches in the tournament thus far, including Axar Patel's blunder against Sri Lanka, which ended up as a sixer.
India's worst fielding performances were against Pakistan and Bangladesh in their Super Four clashes, where they missed as many as nine catches, four against Pakistan and five against the Bangla Tigers.
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Who is India's fielding coach? T Dilip's role under spotlight
T Dilip has served the Indian cricket team as their fielding coach since 2021 and R Sridhar left the role following Ravi Shastri's removal as India's head coach.
Dilip was briefly removed from his position in April 2025, when he followed assistant coach Abhishek Nayyar out of the team, but was reinstated in his role a month later.
Dilip has been working as a fielding coach in the Indian cricket circuit for over a decade now. After working as an assistant fielding coach in the now-defunct Indian Premier League side Deccan Chargers, he then served at various Zonal Cricket Academies and the premier National Cricket Academy, where he worked alongside current generation stars like Shubman Gill and Yashasvi Jaiswal.
While Dilip has served the Indian team with distinction and their performances on the field have been appreciated in the past, there has been a sharp downfall in the fielding standards in the past few months.
The disaster in the Asia Cup just exposed the situation and T Dilip has definitely come under the scanner.
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