|| Desk Report ||

 

With the grandest cricketing tournament in Asia coming up in just a couple of weeks’ time, India have named their squad for the tournament. Virat Kohli has been rested for the tournament as Rohit Sharma is set to lead the Men In Blue in his absence.

Rohit Sharma’s opening partner Shikhar Dhawan has been named the vice-captain for the tournament. The number one Test side in the world are currently on tour in England, which will conclude on the 11^th of September.

Since the Asia Cup begins just four days after that and ends less than a week before India take on West Indies in a Test match in Rajkot, Kohli has been given much-needed rest as there is also a tour of Australia to worry about.

Apart from the absence of Kohli, the squad is at full-strength as the likes of KL Rahul, Jasprit Bumrah, Dinesh Karthik and MS Dhoni find themselves in the 16-man list. Apart from Kohli, only four players that were in the ODI squad against England have been left out of the Asia Cup squad: Shreyas Iyer, Siddarth Kaul, Suresh Raina and Umesh Yadav.

In terms of addition, Khaleel Ahmed is a new name for the Indian team as the 20-year-old is in line to make his India debut in the Asia Cup. Ambati Rayudu has also made his way back into the team after missing out of the England tour due to failing the yo-yo test, which he has now cleared.

Meanwhile, Kedar Jadhav and Manish Pandey have also made it back to the team, with the latter being in tremendous form for India A.