Asia Cup 2018: Analyzing all the squads ahead of the tournament
Asia Cup 2018 will be played from 15 September 2018 to 28 September 2018 which will include 6 nations and will be hosted by UAE with all matches to be held in Abu Dhabi and Dubai.
Teams participating in this tournament includes India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, and Hong Kong. Hong Kong qualified for playing in Asia Cup by beating hosts UAE in the final of recently concluded Qualifiers.
This time the format of the tournament has changed a bit as teams are divided into 2 groups of three each from which top two teams will qualify for the Super Four round. All teams will play each other once in the Super Four rounds and the top two teams will then play the final on 28 September 2018.
This Asia Cup is being considered as one of the most exciting as all teams are in good form. India and Pakistan are considered to be favourites but the rest of the teams cannot be neglected also.
Squads for all the teams are announced and we will analyze the squad of all teams and predict their starting XI.
India
Indian team is one of the favourites of winning this tournament. While regular captain Virat Kohli has been given rest, Indian opener Rohit Sharma will lead the team. The other openers in the team are Shikhar Dhawan and KL Rahul. Dhawan has had an average tour of England by getting starts but not converting them and Rahul was also not able to impress much.
The middle order constitutes of Manish Pandey, who has had a brilliant Quadrangular series with India B, Ambati Rayudu, who had fantastic IPL but was left out of tour of England as he failed in Yo-Yo test, and Kedar Jadhav, who was injured in the first match of IPL itself and managed only 30 runs in four innings in quadrangular series.
The squad includes two wicket-keepers MS Dhoni and Dinesh Kartik. While MS Dhoni last played in ODI series vs England where he was accused of playing too slowly and Karthik who played 2 Tests but was not able to contribute with bat significantly. MS Dhoni will definitely play as wk in the side while Karthik can be included as a pure batsman only.
Hardik Pandya is the only all-rounder in the squad. He had a decent tour of England and is an automatic inclusion in starting XI.
The bowling departments consist of 2 wrist spinners, Kuldeep and Chahal, both of them were in great form in England tour and would love to carry it on and Axar Patel as a left-arm spinner who is unlikely to get a place in the squad. The fast bowling will be lead by Bhuvaneshwar Kumar, who was not part of England tour due to injury, and Jasprit Bumrah, who has been in fantastic form in the 3 test matches he has played in England. The other two fast bowlers in the squad are Shardul Thakur and the young left-arm pacer Khaleel Ahmed, but these two are more likely to warm the benches.
Predicted XI: Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma(c), Ambati Rayudu, Manish Pandey, Dinesh Karthik / Kedar Jadhav, MS Dhoni(wk), Hardik Pandya, Bhuvaneshwar Kumar,Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal and Jasprit Bumarah.