BEIJING (China) - The Chinese Basketball Association (CBA) have formally announced a 14-player roster for the upcoming Window 1 of the FIBA Asia Cup 2025 Qualifiers.

China's 14-player roster for Window 1 of FIBA Asia Cup 2025 Qualifiers

In the upcoming window, China will be playing two important games to tip-off their Qualifiers campaign. They will first face Mongolia on February 22 in Xi'An before travelling to Tokyo to face Japan in one of the biggest games of the Qualifiers on February 25.

The list of players named includes familiar experienced players like Zhao Jiwei and Abudushalamu Abudurexiti, Hu Jinqiu, and Hu Mingxuan while also mixing in some youth as well.

Among those young promising players are Cui Yongxi, who played at the recent World Cup, and big man Yu Jaihao. One of the most intriguing players of the bunch and the youngest is 18-year-old Yang Hansen, who has been garnering attention for his skills ever since the U18 Asia Cup in 2022 and U19 World Cup last year.

While exciting, the list of players has sparked some intrigue ever since the naming of the training camp roster. This is because of the absence of some key players who had consistently been on the squad such as Zhou Qi.

"Injuries and some other reasons have caused some players not to be selected. Some players should have been selected for this window to continue last year's training, but due to injuries, we did not include them in the final list after deliberation," explained China head coach Sasa Djordjevic when he named the training camp roster, as per CBA.

"There are also players who could not be selected due to some other reasons, and as soon as the conditions allow, we will welcome them with open arms as usual. Players need the international experience of the national team to grow and enrich themselves, to understand what kind of games can better help them improve."

For whatever case, Djordjevic trusts that the players that have been preparing for this window are suited for the goal they are working towards.

"We need to win and at the same time look to the future," he said. "Therefore, we have introduced more players into this training, so that if some of the older players are not able to play due to unpredictable reasons, the younger players can fill in the positions in time and build up the team's tacit understanding in advance. But no matter what, winning and qualifying for the Asia Cup is our goal, and at the same time, allowing young players to gain experience in international competitions as soon as possible is also an important goal for us."

The goal is clear for these Qualifiers, as Djordjevic emphasizes ("Our goal is the same as always: to qualify for the Asia Cup by winning the Qualifiers games"), but he also recognizes the degree of difficulty in the games ahead.

"Our opponents are very worthy of our respect, such as Japan, who gained valuable experience as one of the hosts of last year's World Cup and earned a ticket to the Paris Olympics. Meanwhile, Mongolia and Guam are two opponents that we will have to make serious preparations for."

China, Japan, Mongolia, and Guam are all in Group C of the Qualifiers where they will go up against each other to secure spots at Asia Cup 2025.

		GAMES				GAME POINTS					POINTS
#	Team	P	W	L	%	For	Agt	+/-	FA	AA
1	China	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
2	Guam	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
3	Japan	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
4	Mongolia	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

China's first game against Mongolia is on February 22 at 19:30 (GMT +8) at the Shaanxi Provincial Gymnasium. Their game against Japan will be on February 25 at 14:00 (GMT +9) at the Ariake Coliseum in Tokyo.

Like the previous cycle, the 24 Asia Cup Qualifiers teams are drawn into 6 groups of 4. Each team plays the other 3 teams on a home-and-away basis over 3 windows, with 2 games per window.

The top 2 teams from each group will qualify for the FIBA Asia Cup 2025, making a total of 12 teams.

The six 3rd-place teams from each group, meanwhile, qualify to play in a final qualifying tournament. The top 4 teams from this competition will take the remaining spots of the FIBA Asia Cup 2025.

FIBA