No Virat Kohli in Asia Cup 2018

India have announced their squad for the Asia Cup 2018 giving rest to their key batsman and captain Virat Kohli. Rohit Sharma has been given the responsibility to captain Team India in this Asia Cup with Shikhar Dhawan as the vice-captain. Asia Cup 2018 is scheduled to be held in the UAE starting from 15th September. The final match is to be played on 28th September.

The main reason for the selectors to rest Virat Kohli is the tight schedule in the next few months. The Asia Cup 2018 will be started just after four days of the end of India’s tour of England. India have lost the five-match test series in England, which ended on 11th September. Just five days after the Asia Cup ends, India will start playing a home series against West Indies starting on 4th October. This home series will be followed by the tour of Australia starting from 21st November.

Kedar Jadhav has recovered from hamstring injury which happened in the last IPL. Jasprit Bumrah has also recovered from thumb injury. Along with them, Ambati Rayudu and Manish Pandey are back in the squad after missing the ODI series in England. Ambati Rayudu has passed the fitness test. Manish Pandey has shown good form in the A team quadrangular series. He scored 306 runs in four innings without being dismissed. Suresh Raina, Umesh Yadav, Shreyas Iyer and Siddarth Kaul have been dropped from this squad for the Asia Cup 2018.

The only new face of this squad for the Asia Cup 2018 is Khaleel Ahmed who is a left-arm seamer from Rajasthan. Khaleel Khursheed Ahmed is only 20 years old and has played only two first-class, 12 T20 and 17 List A matches. In his last nine limited-over matches he played for India A, he took 15 wickets and was not wicketless in any of those matches. Major teams he has played for are Delhi Daredevils, India A, India Under-19s, Rajasthan Under-16s, Rajasthan Under-19s and Sunrisers Hyderabad. Team India is looking at him as the next left-arm option.

Despite the fact that Virat Kohli has been rested, this India squad is full strength.

India Squad for Asia Cup 2018

Rohit Sharma (captain), Shikhar Dhawan (vice-captain), Khaleel Ahmed, Jasprit Bumrah, Yuzvendra Chahal, MS Dhoni (wicketkeeper), Kedar Jadhav, Dinesh Karthik, Kuldeep Yadav, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Manish Pandey, Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, Lokesh Rahul, Ambati Rayudu, Shardul Thakur