DUBAI: Kuldeep Yadav returned figures of 4-7 to lead holders India to a crushing nine-wicket win over hosts United Arab Emirates in their opening match of the Asia Cup on Wednesday.

Kuldeep struck three times in one over with his left-arm wrist spin as tournament favourites India skittled UAE for a paltry 57 in 13.1 overs after they elected to field first in the T20 in Dubai.

The left-arm spinner Kuldeep made his comeback in the shortest format after over a one-year hiatus and admitted it was tough for him being out of action.

“It was tough for me. Was working on my bowling and my fitness as well with our coaches and everything went going perfect [tonight], the 30-year-old said.

Kuldeep added that he was able to outwit the opponent batters by bowling at good lengths and assessing the conditions better.

“The length matters a lot, reading the batters,” Kuldeep said. “Specially in this format, the length is the main thing and reading the batters and what they are trying to do.”

India romped home to victory in 4.3 overs after left-handed opener Abhishek Sharma hit 30 off 16 balls and vice-captain Shubman Gill stood unbeaten on 20.

But it was the bowlers who set up victory for the reigning T20 World Cup champions as medium-pacer Shivam Dube claimed three before Kuldeep wrapped up the innings.

Indian captain Suryakumar Yadav credited the Champions Trophy experience for helping the players get familiar with the conditions.

“Recently, a lot of boys were here during the Champions Trophy,” Yadav said in the post-match interview.

“It (the pitch) looked good but it looked on the slower side. It is very hot here, so thought spinners might have a bit more dominance, but nice support shown by Hardik [Pandya], [Jasprit] Bumrah and Dube.”

Put in to bat, UAE opener Alishan Sharafu started briskly with boundaries before falling to pace bowler Jasprit Bumrah for 22 off 17 balls.

Skipper Muhammad Waseem struck 19 to be the only other batsman to make double figures in an otherwise shambolic show by the rest of the team.

Kuldeep’s three wickets, including Waseem, in his second over rattled the opposition batting which soon fell apart.

In reply, Sharma came out attacking as he smashed left-arm spinner Haider Ali for a six and a four.

He hit two more sixes in his blitz before being caught out off pace bowler Junaid Siddique.

Gill finished off the chase with a boundary as skipper Yadav, unbeaten on seven, looked on from the other end.

Waseem cited the fall of wickets in regular intervals as the main reason of the UAE.

“We started well as a batting team but we lost wickets in a cluster, and that cost us the game,” the skipper said. “We can say that they [India] are a brilliant team. They executed their plan for every batter. That is why they are the number one team.”

Waseem even after the crushing loss stayed optimistic and believe his side can comeback stronger.

“As a team, we have to come back stronger and we have to learn from these mistakes,” he said.

India won the previous Asia Cup, which was played in a 50-over format in 2023, when they beat hosts Sri Lanka in the final in Colombo.

India will next face Pakistan on Sunday in the most highly-anticipated match of the T20 tournament, which serves as a build-up competition for next year’s T20 World Cup in India and Sri Lanka.

Scoreboard

UAE:

A. Sharafu b Bumrah22

M. Waseem lbw b K. Yadav19

M. Zohaib c K. Yadav b Chakravarthy2

R. Chopra c Gill b K. Yadav3

A. Khan c Samson b Dube2

H. Kaushik b K. Yadav2

D. Parashar lbw b Dube1

S. Singh lbw b Patel1

H. Ali c Samson b K. Yadav1

J. Siddique c S. Yadav b Dube0

M. Rohid not out2

EXTRAS (W-2)2

TOTAL (all out, 13.1 overs)57

FALL OF WICKETS: 1-26 (Sharafu), 2-29 (Zohaib), 3-47 (Chopra), 4-48 (Waseem), 5-50 (Kaushik), 6-51 (Khan), 7-52 (Singh), 8-54 (Parashar), 9-55 (Siddique)

BOWLING: Pandya 1-0-10-0, Bumrah 3-0-19-1 (1w), Patel 3-0-13-1, Chakravarthy 2-0-4-1, K. Yadav 2.1-0-7-4, Dube 2-0-4-3 (1w)

INDIA:

A. Sharma c Ali b Siddique30

S. Gill not out20

S. Yadav not out7

EXTRAS (W-3)3

TOTAL (for one wicket, 4.3 overs)60

DID NOT BAT: T. Varma, S. Samson, S. Dube, H. Pandya, A. Patel, K. Yadav,

V. Chakravarthy, J. Bumrah

FALL OF WICKET: 1-48 (Sharma)

BOWLING: Ali 1-0-10-0, Rohid 1-0-15-0 (1w), Parashar 1-0-13-0 (1w), Siddique 1-0-16-1 (1w), Singh 0.3-0-6-0

RESULT: India won by nine wickets.

PLAYER-OF-THE-MATCH: Kuldeep Yadav

Published in Dawn, September 11th, 2025