Asia Cup Series: India Squad
BCCI has formally announced the squad for Asia Cup 2018 to be held in UAE from 15th to 28th September 2018. Read on to know more about the India team squad that has been announced.
TEAM INDIA
As widely expected, Captain Kohli, who has been an inspiration and the source of hope for Team India in England, has been rested from the tournament. Rohit Sharma has been announced as the captain of the team for the tournament, with Shikhar "Gabbar" Dhawan being named his deputy. There have been some surprise inclusions and exclusions from the team, though.
Inclusions
Kedar Jadhav is back to full fitness and having played in the India B team as part of the quadrangular series, has been added back to the squad.
Another inclusion to the team is Jadhav's captain in the quadrangular series, Manish Pandey, who had a good outing both as a captain and payer in the series. He captained his team to win against Australia A in the series as well as raking up over 300 runs, including an unbeaten 73 off 54 in the final.
Khaleel Ahmed: One pleasantly surprising inclusion is that of the 20-year old left-arm pace bowler from Tonk, Rajasthan. With just a handful of List A matches and two First class matches under his belt, Khaleel epitomizes the rags to riches story in Indian cricket. He was already on the radar of franchises in the IPL, having been purchased by Sunrisers Hyderabad for a whopping 3 Cr rupees in last year's auction. He was also part of the India A team, whose captain is a surprise exclusion from the squad, and Khaleel bagged 7 wickets in the series.
Ambati Rayudu and Bumrah being added to the squad should come as no surprises.
Exclusions
Suresh Raina: After having returned to the squad after three years in the recently concluded ODI series against England, Raina has been dropped from the squad again. This appears to be a mixed signal from the selectors. On one hand, selecting Raina after three years to a tour where the world cup is scheduled in less than a year was an indication that he was definitely part of the plans for the world cup, while on the other, dropping him in the next is an indication otherwise.
Shreyas Iyer: Another surprise exclusion was that of Shreyas Iyer's. Only 23 years old and having captained India A regularly, Iyer was constantly in the frame of selection. Even though he had a pretty ordinary tour of South Africa, where he could only muster scores of 18 and 30 in the two ODIs he had played, he is a natural stroke maker and a valuable back up to fellow top-order batsman Rahul, another classy stroke maker.
Other notable exclusions include Umesh Yadav and Siddharth Kaul.
Overall Squad
The squad looks balanced, with the top order oozing class and confidence and the team spoilt for choices in terms of the all-rounders available. Wrist spinners play a vital role in UAE and one could see why the team has two specialist wrist spinners with Axar Patel and Kedar Jadhav providing options for finger spin. Bhuvi, Bumrah, and Kul-Cha are certain starters in the bowling department with Hardik expected to play the vital role of a fast-bowling all-rounder. Rahul is expected to come at one-down, in the absence of Kohli, with Rayudu at no.4.
Batsmen
Rohit Sharma (Captain), Shikhar Dhawan (Vice Captain), KL Rahul, Ambati Rayudu, Manish Pandey,
Wicket Keepers
MS Dhoni, Dinesh Karthik
All Rounders
Kedar Jadhav, Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, Bhuvneshwar Kumar
Bowlers
Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Jasprit Bumrah, Shardul Thakur, Khaleel Ahmed