[3] Asthana joined The Observer as a general reporter in 2003 and spent several months at The Washington Post in 2006 on the Laurence Stern fellowship.
[4][5] In succession to Patrick Wintour, Asthana was appointed in December 2015 as the joint political editor of The Guardian, in a job share arrangement with Heather Stewart which began in early 2016.
[8] Since September 2018, Asthana has co-presented ITV's Wednesday night flagship politics discussion programme Peston.
That year she decided to leave her role as the joint political editor of The Guardian to present its new daily podcast Today in Focus, later being promoted to editor-at-large, replacing Gary Younge.
[9][10] Asthana left The Guardian in 2021 to join ITV News as deputy political editor to Robert Peston.