By: Mohit Singhal
Asia Cup 2022: Ahead of the all important World Cup in Australia, Asian counterparts looks to settle the debate of who are the champions of the sub-continent first with Asia Cup 2022 set to start from August 27 in United Arab Emirates (UAE).
Reigning Asian champions India will look to clear the debate with one more title having 7 cups already to their cabinet. In the process of going ahead, India has announced their 15 member squad that will be facing some tough Asia challenge starting from 28th August against their arch rivals Pakistan.
With Rohit Sharma leading the pack, it will be 2nd Asia Cup for him as a skipper after he was appointed as the stand in captain for the 2018 Asia Cup in the absence of Virat Kohli.
Big news is that Virat Kohli and KL Rahul are making their comeback with the former was given rest for the whole of Caribbean tour while later was out due to injury and covid scarce.
Another big but sad news coming out is that India's ace bowler Jasprit Bumrah has been ruled out from the tournament owing to the back injury to him.
With Bumrah's absence from the team, more of responsibility will be on the shoulders of Bhuvneshwar Kumar as apart from him no other pacer has experience of playing the multi-national tournaments.
Deepak Chahar, who has recently been declared fit to play has been put into the stand-by category where Axar Patel and Shreyas Iyer are too accompanying him.
Deepak Hooda got the nod over Iyer in the squad with the former being in the scintillating form whenever given chances.
Arshdeep Singh, who has been in magnificent form in the current series against West Indies and England has been given the direct entry to flew to UAE and most probably he will also be on the plane to Oz.
With Bumrah and Harshal being out of the tournament due to injuries, Avesh Khan got the privilege to shine at the big event with few of his amazing spells against West Indies and Ireland too giving him nod over Siraj and Shami.
However, Harshal likely to hold his place for the T20 World Cup later this year.
Mohammed Shami has been dropped from the squad after Arshdeep and Avesh being referred above him in the shortest format of the game.
As far as option for wicket-keeping is concerned, Rishabh Pant and Dinesh Karthik got their spots in the team on the expense of Sanju Samson and Ishan Kishan. Ishan was in a fine form this year whenever he got to prove his worth.
Rohit Sharma (Captain), KL Rahul (VC), Virat Kohli, Deepak Hooda, Rishabh Pant (WK), Dinesh Karthik (WK), Ravindra Jadeja, Hardik Pandya, Ravichandran Ashwin, Yuzvendra Chahal, Ravi Bishnoi, Deepak Hooda, Arshdeep Singh, Avesh Khan, Bhuvneshwar Kumar.
Stand-in players: Shreyas Iyer, Axar Patel, and Deepak Chahar.