Asia Cup: India's probable playing XI
India has announced its squad for Asia Cup. Virat Kohli has been rested and Rohit Sharma will lead the side in his absence. This should definitely create a void in the middle order as Kohli is arguably India's best batsman.
Having said that, this gives an opportunity to the fringe players to make a mark in the Asia Cup. This will a test for the middle-order and those who rise to occasion in absence of the Indian skipper may cement their place for the World Cup.
India squad: Rohit Sharma (c), Shikhar Dhawan (vc), KL Rahul, Ambati Rayudu, Manish Pandey, Kedar Jadhav, MS Dhoni (wk), Dinesh Karthik, Hardik Pandya, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Axar Patel, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah, Shardul Thakur, Khaleel Ahmed.
This should be the probably playing XI for Asia Cup.
Openers(Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma)
Rohit Sharma will lead India in the absence of Virat Kohli. He along with Dhawan will form the explosive opening pair for India. Both of them are a fierce striker of the cricket ball and on their day can destroy any bowling attack.
The batting -friendly conditions of UAE are expected to encourage high scoring games. In the absence of Kohli at No 3, the openers have an additional responsibility of providing a good start.
Rohit will be buoyed with the additional responsibility of captaining the team and will look to lead from the front. Dhawan would be itching to get some runs under his belt after an average performance on the England tour.