Having won the inaugural edition of the tournament in 2016, India enter the Asia Cup as defending champions in the T20I format.
With Jasprit Bumrah and Harshal Patel sidelined, India are missing a couple of their key players for the Asia Cup 2022 in UAE. But the defending champions will kick off the tournament’s second edition in the T20I format as strong contenders for the title.
The Rohit Sharma-led side packs a punch in the shortest version of the game and have been playing an aggressive brand of cricket, shepherded astutely by their head coach Rahul Dravid.
Ever since their disastrous Super 12 exit at the T20 World Cup in UAE last November, India have won 19 of their 24 T20Is, including whitewash over New Zealand and series wins in England and the Caribbean.
Rohit & company have been going at 9.24 runs an over while averaging a very healthy 32.11 for each wicket. In the previous five-year period, beginning from the end of 2016 T20 World Cup at home, India went at 8.66, averaging 33.60.
At the Asia Cup, they’ll be determined to avenge their painful World Cup defeat to arch-rivals Pakistan. Winning the regional tournament will be critical for India as they strive to finalise their best XI and head for T20 World Cup in Australia in October-November.
Rohit Sharma (c), KL Rahul, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant, Dinesh Karthik, Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, R. Ashwin, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Arshdeep Singh, Ravi Bishnoi, Avesh Khan, Deepak Hooda, Yuzvendra Chahal
Reserves – Shreyas Iyer, Axar Patel, Deepak Chahar
Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul, Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant, Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Yuzvendra Chahal, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Arshdeep Singh
Virat Kohli – the India great’s performance at No.3 will be key to the team’s chances since he will be facing a lot of spin in UAE. It is against spin that Kohli has had a worrying decline; since the start of 2020, he has had a strike-rate of 103.57. In the same timeframe, the right-hander has gone at just 6.35 an over against the tweakers in IPL over three seasons for RCB. For India to win the Asia Cup, they’ll need Kohli to overcome his slump and dominate again.
Bhuvneshwar Kumar – In Bumrah’s absence, the onus will be on Bhuvneshwar to lead India’s pace attack in spin-friendly conditions. The experienced seamer didn’t have the best of tours to the Caribbean but has been bowler rejuvenated since the beginning of the year in this format. Bhuvneshwar has bagged 20 wickets with an excellent economy rate of 6.84 for India; he had taken 12 wickets at 7.34 an over in IPL 2022, including 8.60 at the death.
| Date | Match | Venue | IST |
| Aug 28 | India vs Pakistan | Dubai | 7:30 PM |
| Aug 31 | India vs TBC | Dubai | 7:30 PM |
