On September 1, the 16-member Indian squad for the upcoming Asia Cup 2018 was declared where regular captain Virat Kohli has been rested for the Asian tournament. The squad included 20-year-old pacer Khaleel Ahmed, a left-arm fast bowler from Rajasthan who has made his maiden call-up for India. Ahmed was a part of India A team in the quadrangular series and finished as the third highest wicket-taker with seven wickets.
However, in the absence of Virat Kohli, Mumbai lad and Indian vice-captain Rohit Sharma will be the acting captain. Manish Pandey, Kedar Jadhav and Ambati Rayudu have eventually made it to the Indian squad after missing the England tour whereas Suresh Raina, Umesh Yadav and Siddarth Kaul have been excluded from the squad.
MSK Prasad, chairman of the senior selection panel while talking about Virat Kohli’s exclusion stated that,
He has been playing for quite some time and looking at the workload we have given him [Kohli] the rest."
Manish Pandey had a fabulous run-scoring stint as he has led the India B side, scoring 306 runs in four matches with one hundred and two half-centuries while remaining unbeaten. However, both the bowlers, Bhuvaneshwar Kumar and Jasprit Bumrah who were suffering injury, will make a comeback in the One-Day Internationals.
India’s Asia Cup stint begins from September 18 with a game against one team that will get through the qualifiers. The next encounter will be against arch-rivals Pakistan on September 19.
India squad: Rohit Sharma (c), Shikhar Dhawan (vc), KL Rahul, Ambati Rayudu, Manish Pandey, Kedar Jadhav, MS Dhoni (wk), Dinesh Karthik, Hardik Pandya, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Axar Patel, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah, Shardul Thakur, Khaleel Ahmed
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