NEW DELHI: India have named a 15-member squad for the Asia Cup to be captained by Rohit Sharma. Virat Kohli has returned to the setup as has KL Rahul but Jasprit Bumrah and Harshal Patel miss out with injury (rib).
Kohli, who was rested from the tour of West Indies and will skip the ODIs in Zimbabwe, is expected to straight away return to the fold against Pakistan – the opener for the Indian team on 28 August. Kohli’s last assignment was the series against England where he picked up a niggle.
KL Rahul has recovered from an injury and COVID-19 related illness to become available. He is also named as the vice-captain for the side.
Rahul has been out of action since the end of the Indian Premier League in May. His string of issues since then include a groin injury, surgery for sports hernia and just as he regained fitness, the 30-year-old tested COVID positive.
Bumrah did not travel with the rest to the West Indies after the tour of England, and he had also been rested from the upcoming ODI series in Zimbabwe. As per a BCCI source, Bumrah has a back injury that hasn’t recovered fully.
BCCI have named three standbys for the tournament: Shreyas Iyer, Axar Patel and Deepak Chahar. Ishan Kishan, Kuldeep Yadav and Sanju Samson, who were part of the T20I series in the West Indies, have been left out. Arshdeep Singh, Ravi Bishnoi, Avesh Khan and Deepak Hooda have kept their places.
The Asia Cup, played in a T20I format, gets underway on 27 August with Sri Lanka facing Afghanistan. India are the defending continental champions, last played in 2018 in an ODI format.
India, Pakistan and the team that wins the qualifying tournament comprise Group A, while Sri Lanka, Afghanistan and Bangladesh are in Group B. Ten games will take place in Dubai and three in Sharjah.
India squad for 2022 Asia Cup: Rohit Sharma (c), KL Rahul (v/c), Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant (wk), Deepak Hooda, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Yuzvendra Chahal, Ravi Bishnoi, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Arshdeep Singh, and Avesh Khan.
