Former Indian cricketer Atul Vasan, claiming the ongoing Asia Cup 2025 drama, claimed that India’s captain Suryakumar Yadav was almost “bound”, which was to dedicate the victims of the Pahgam terror attack to the team’s groups of group-deeds over Pakistan.
After guiding India for a seven -wicket win over Pakistan in the Asia Cup 2025 group match, Suryakumar Yadav dedicated the victory to the Indian Armed Forces and dedicated the traded Pahalgam terrorist attack earlier in April 2025 earlier this year.
Atul Vasan claims that Suryakumar Yadav’s tribute was more public pressure than patriotism
The statement did not sit well with the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), and complained to the Asian Cricket Council (ACC) and the International Cricket Council (ICC). After the recent hearing, the Indian captain was warned against repeating 30% of his match fees and repeating the strategy.
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However, Atul Vasan has reported that such gestures often reflect public expectations and optics rather than pure spirit. He even compared the position of Suryakumar Yadav to Haris Rauf and Sahibzada Farhan of Pakistani players, who made stimulating on-field gestures in the Super Four Game.
The former cricketer believes that players from both sides are under great pressure to act in ways attracting attention, and Suryakumar’s move was about public perception as patriotism. He emphasized that this type of tokenism does not make the Indian captain any less patriotism.
I am against these optics and tokenism: Atul Vasan
Atul Vasan was told by NDTV: “In India, if I say the match should continue because the government has allowed it, everyone is coming after me, but it does not less than the patriot. If I do not mention Pahalgam, it does not reduce me to the patriot.”
He added, “I am against these optics and tokenism. If he did not say this, he will still be a patriot, because it is given that we are all there. But it is a kind of eyeball and tokenism that people expected, and it used to work like a balm, and he forced it to say, as if they were obliged to do so.”
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Suryakumar Yadav fined 30% for tribute, BCCI challenges ICC decision
In particular, the PCB lodged a complaint with the ICC that after Suryakumar Yadav’s match, a tribute violated the law. They also wanted the most difficult punishment, a level 4 approval, as their words were political. And the ICC has already treated similar situations, such as when Usman Khwaja was not allowed to wear shoes against the Israeli-Gaja struggle.
However, Suryakumar has insisted that his words were just a tribute, not political, but ICC match referee, Richie Richardson dismissed his plea. As a result, Yadav was fined 30 percent of his match fees. Now, the BCCI has challenged the ICC’s decision, saying that his statement was a human gesture and not political.
India is set to face Pakistan in the Asia Cup 2025 final on Sunday, 28 September on Sunday, September 28 in Dubai. However, Abhishek Sharma, Hardik Pandya and Tilak Verma faced cramps in the previous game. Abhishek and Tilak are expected to be fully recovered and available for the finals, but Hardik’s fitness is uncertain.
