India's Probable Playing XI in the 2018 Asia Cup
The 14th edition of the Asia Cup, will be held in UAE, from 15th September 2018 till 28th September 2018. In this edition, there will be six teams in total - India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Afghanistan and a qualifier (UAE or Hong Kong).
These six teams have been divided into two groups of three teams each.
Group A: India; Pakistan; Qualifier
Group B: SriLanka ; Bangladesh; Afghanistan
The 16 member Indian ODI team for the tournament was selected on September 1, 2018. India's best ODI player and captain, Virat Kohli, has been rested. In his absence, Rohit Sharma will lead the Indian side in the tournament.
The 16 member Indian Team for the Asia Cup 2018:
Rohit Sharma (C), Shikhar Dhawan (VC) , KL Rahul, Ambati Rayudu, Manish Pandey, Kedar Jadhav, MS Dhoni, Dinesh Karthik, Hardik Pandya, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Axar Patel, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah, Shardul Thakur, Khaleel Ahmed.
Except Virat Kohli, no other player has been rested. India is thus going into the tournament with a very strong side, which has a good blend of youth and experience.
In this article we try and select the probable playing XI for India in the tournament.
It is not necessary that the team will remain same in all the matches. However the best possible XI, from the chosen 16 members, is what we tried and picked up.
#1 Openers : Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan
Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan have been one of the best opening pairs in the history of Indian ODI cricket. At present, they are arguably the best ODI opening pair in the world, especially in subcontinent conditions.
Both of them can score big match winning centuries at a very good strike rate. In the absence of Virat Kohli, the Indian team will look forward to this opening pair for giving good starts in all the matches of the tournament.
The success of the Indian team will depend to a large extent on how the Rohit-Shikhar opening pair performs.