Team India for Asia Cup announced

The All-India Senior Selection Committee met in Mumbai today to pick the Indian Cricket Team for the Asia Cup, 2018 starting 15th September in UAE.

The committee in consultation with the team management took a unanimous decision to rest Virat Kohli for the tournament. Rohit Sharma will lead the side while Shikhar Dhawan has been named vice-captain.

India’s squad for Asia Cup 2018: Rohit Sharma (Captain), Shikhar Dhawan (vice-captain), KL Rahul, Ambati Rayudu, Manish Pandey, Kedar Jadhav, MS Dhoni (wicket-keeper), Dinesh Karthik, Hardik Pandya, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Axar Patel, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah, Shardul Thakur, Khaleel Ahmed

The tournament starts on September 15th with the final match to be played on 28th September featuring Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Afghanistan and a qualifier.

“Considering the workload we have given Virat Kohli rest. He has been playing continuously for quite some time. We need to preserve some of our precious players who are playing all 3 formats, looking at that workload we have started with Virat and he will be rested for Asia Cup,” said the selectors.

“Yes there are 2-3 slots that we are yet to finalise. One is a left-handed seamer’s slot where we are looking at Khaleel. So for those spots we will be trying and we will look at these 24 matches. As we move closer towards World Cup, you guys will come to know,” said MSK Prasad after announcing the squad.

MS Dhone will be once again be looked to take the stance behind the stumps along with Dinesh Karthik taking the reserve slot, while Kedar Jadhav who has recovered from the hamstring injury is back in the squad.