Asia Cup: India's strongest XI without Hardik Pandya for the Super Four matches
With the group stage of the Asia Cup coming to the fag end, India along with Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan have made to the Super Four. India, who played two matches in two days have done a great job in winning both the matches and have comfortably made it to the next stage.
After being challenged by Hong Kong in the first match, India upped their game in the next game and completely outplayed Pakistan. In the process of restricting Pakistan to 162, India might have lost a great asset in Hardik Pandya. The ace Indian all-rounder injured his back in his fifth over and was carried off the field. After a medical examination, he was ruled out of the tournament and Deepak Chahar was named as his replacement.
In addition to that India also lost the services of Axar Patel and Shardul Thakur who will miss the rest of the tournament due to thumb and groin injuries respectively. For the remainder of the tournament, Ravindra Jadeja and Siddarth Kaul will be part of the Indian squad. In the aftermath of the injuries, we tried to put together the best possible XI for India without Hardik Pandya for the Super Four matches.
Openers:
Shikhar Dhawan
Shikhar Dhawan in Test cricket and in one-day internationals is almost a completely different player. With the two innings that played, the problems that he place in the England Test series are now long gone.
He has been not only India's best batsman but also the best batsman of the tournament across all teams. The southpaw was outstanding in both the matches for India. While his 127 in the first match helped India edge past Hong Kong, in the second match he scored 46 useful runs and ensured an easy win for India.
Rohit Sharma(c)
There are no doubts about who should partner Shikhar Dhawan at the top of the innings. The obvious choice is the Indian skipper for the tournament Rohit Sharma. Just like his opening partner who excels in white ball cricket, Sharma is a very dangerous batsman in limited overs cricket. In fact, he is the only cricketer in the world to score three double centuries in ODI cricket.
Rohit Sharma was a tad bit off in the first match as a captain and as a batsman but he has turned things around in the game against Pakistan. The Indian skipper was in complete attacking mode in the field and with the bat. During the first innings, Rohit Sharma kept on using his attacking bowlers, who were on point, and with the bat he scored a 39-ball 52 which blew the slight chances that Pakistan had.