Top 3 Indian players from the Emerging Teams Asia Cup 2018
The Emerging Teams Asia Cup took place from the 6th to the 15th of December, 2018. The tournament featured 8 teams out of which 5 teams were Test playing nations, namely India, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, and hosts Sri Lanka, Pakistan.
The other 3 teams comprised of the associate nations Oman, Hong Kong, and the United Arab Emirates. The BCCI had earlier refused to send the Indian side to Pakistan for the tournament and thus the Indian games were only played in Sri Lanka.
The Indian team comprised of the following players:
Jayant Yadav (c)
Ankush Bains (wk)
Siddharth Desai
Ruturaj Gaikwad
Himmat Singh
Deepak Hooda
Mayank Markande
Shams Mulani
Prasidh Krishna
Ankit Rajpoot
Nitish Rana
Atit Sheth
Shivam Mavi
Simran Singh
Atharwa Taide
India was placed in Group A which comprised of Oman, Afghanistan and hosts Sri Lanka. India were comfortable in their group games topping their group with 3 consecutive wins to head into the semifinals where they thrashed Pakistan. However, they fell short in the finals as they lost to Sri Lanka by 3 runs. Some of the top performers for the Indian side were as follows:
#1 Jayant Yadav
Jayant Yadav was the most experienced player in the Emerging India team having played for the senior side in both ODIs and Tests. Yadav, as expected, led the side from the front with his all-around performance. He was the second highest wicket-taker in the tournament only behind his teammate Mayank Markande.
He picked up 7 wickets in 4 games at an average of 20.42 with an economy rate as low as 3.57. Yadav was the pick of the bowlers in the semi-finals against Pakistan where he bowled 2 maiden overs and picked up 2 wickets in his 10 over spell conceding only 29 runs.
Apart from his bowling, he played an important knock of 71 off 85 balls in the finals against Sri Lanka to keep India in the game. He will be looking to continue with this performance in the domestic circuit for a place in the senior side.