India's first match in Asia Cup 2025 will be against hosts United Arab Emirates (UAE) on 10 September at Dubai International Cricket Stadium. In this match, all eyes will be on UAE's left-arm spinner Simranjit Singh. Simranjit can pose a challenge for the Indian batsmen. He made his debut for the UAE team only last year. Simranjit Singh was playing cricket in India till a few years ago. But an illness changed everything in his life.

This Indian player will play for UAE

35-year-old Simranjit Singh was born in Punjab, India, but later he moved to UAE. He made his international cricket debut for UAE in 2024 and has played 5 ODIs and 12 T20 Internationals so far. Simranjit is an off-spinner, known for his accurate line and length. Let us tell you, Simranjit is one of the 2017 Ranji probables for Punjab. But he never got a chance on the big stage. At the same time, the biggest turning point in his career came in the year 2021.

In April 2021, he went to Dubai for about 20 days for a practice session. But he could not return due to the second COVID-19 wave. Simranjit told PTI in a recent interview that the second wave came strongly and India was again put under lockdown. I could not go back for months and finally stayed here. After this, he coached junior players, played club cricket and after three seasons he got the central contract of the UAE team. Let us tell you, according to the UAE Cricket Board, if a player plays domestic cricket for 3 seasons, then he will be eligible to play international cricket. Then the player will not need citizenship.

Made Shubman Gill practice

Simranjit said in an interview to PTI, 'I have known Shubman since he was a child. Like Simranjit, Shubman also often stayed at the PCA Academy in Mohali even after training time and in those days I bowled a lot to him. Simranjeet further said, 'I think Shubman Gill must have been around 11 or 12 years old at that time. He used to come to the nets regularly for practice. I used to bowl a lot to him later in the session.' He jokingly said, 'My dream was to play for India, but now that I am playing for UAE, I think my family will support UAE.