Virat Kohli, KL Rahul return; Jasprit Bumrah ruled out - India announce Asia Cup squad
India’s 15-member squad for the Asia Cup 2022 was announced on Monday, August 8. Virat Kohli, who had opted out from the team’s recent white-ball tour of the West Indies returns, so too does KL Rahul, who has been out of action since the conclusion of IPL 2022 with injury and later covid-19.
Meanwhile, fast-bowling spearhead Jasprit Bumrah has been sidelined with back injury. The back issue is set to keep Bumrah out for a considerable amount of time, and a PTI report stated that he will undergo rehabilitation at the National Cricket Academy in Bengaluru.
Kohli has played only four T20Is since the conclusion of the T20 World Cup 2021, two of which came in England recently, where he managed scores of 1 and 11. He had aggregated mere 341 runs at 22.73 and a strike-rate of 116, including three first-ball ducks, in Royal Challengers Bangalore's run to the playoffs at IPL 2022.
Shreyas Iyer, Axar Patel and Deepak Chahar have been named as the standby players, with the seamer returning from an extended injury break. Ishan Kishan, India's second ranked T20I batter currently (14th overall) after Suryakumar Yadav, was a glaring exclusion from the squad.
The Asia Cup 2022, which was earlier to be hosted by Sri Lanka, was moved to the UAE owing to the current situation in the island nation. Dubai and Sharjah will collectively host 13 matches in the T20 tournament beginning August 27.
🚨#TeamIndia squad for Asia Cup 2022 - Rohit Sharma (Capt ), KL Rahul (VC), Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Deepak Hooda, R Pant (wk), Dinesh Karthik (wk), Hardik Pandya, R Jadeja, R Ashwin, Y Chahal, R Bishnoi, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Arshdeep Singh, Avesh Khan.
— BCCI (@BCCI) August 8, 2022
UAE, Kuwait, Singapore and Hong Kong will compete in a qualifying tournament in Oman from August 20, and the winner will join India and Pakistan in Group A, while Sri Lanka, Afghanistan and Bangladesh are placed in Group B.
India are the defending champions, having won their seventh title back in 2018 (ODI format) by beating Bangladesh in a last-ball thriller.
India squad for Asia Cup 2022
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
Backups:Shreyas Iyer, Axar Patel, Deepak Chahar
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