BCCI announces 16-man India squad for Asia Cup 2018

The 2018 Asia Cup in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) will get underway from September 15 and will continue till September 28 2018. The qualifiers are currently underway in Malaysia and there will be six participating teams in the main event. The eleven matches will be played at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium and Sheikh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi.

In the meantime, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has announced a 16-man squad for the tournament. One major omission has been in the form of Virat Kohli, the Indian captain, who has been rested. His immense workload was a major concern for the world’s richest cricketing board. Rohit Sharma has been appointed as the skipper.

Khaleel Ahmed gets a go

There have been a number of new inclusions from the previous squad. Ambati Rayudu, who missed the United Kingdom (UK) tour owing to failure in the yo-yo test, found his place back in the team. Karnataka-batsman Manish Pandey, who had an incredible outing for India ‘B’ in the recently concluded quadrangular series, made his comeback to the ODI team after last year.

Kedar Jadhav sustained a hamstring injury during the IPL but has recovered in time to stake his claim back into the national setup. Bhuvneshwar Kumar, who has been tussling through a back injury off late, has also been drafted in. Meanwhile, 20-year-old left-arm fast-bowler Khaleel Ahmed got his maiden national call-up.

He has duly been rewarded after he picked up seven wickets in four matches for India ‘A’ in the quadrangular series. India are the defending champions of the event and would be keen to carry on with their dominance in the tournament.

Here is the full squad

Rohit Sharma (C), Shikhar Dhawan (VC), KL Rahul, Ambati Rayudu, Manish Pandey, Kedar Jadhav, MS Dhoni, Dinesh Karthik, Hardik Pandya, Kuldeep Yadav, Y Chahal, Axar Patel, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah, Shardul Thakur, Khaleel Ahmed

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