India captain Virat Kohli was on Saturday rested from the Asia Cup with the selectors naming Rohit Sharma as captain of the 16-member squad for the tournament to be held in United Arab Emirates. Rajasthan left-arm pacer Khaleel Ahmed is the only new face in the team.
Asia Cup is scheduled to start from September 15 in Dubai. India will open the tournament against Bangladesh on that day.
Regular skipper Virat Kohli, currently leading the team in England, has been rested. The Indian team will end their long English sojourn on 11 September. Asia Cup begins on 15 September in Dubai. India will open their campaign on 18 September.
Manish Pandey, who was not part of the 50-over team that played in England, has been rewarded for his stellar show in the Quadrangular series, where besides leading India ‘B’ to a title, he scored 306 runs without being dismissed once. Pandey’s Karnataka statemate Mayank Agarwal, who had a breakout 2017-18 domestic season, was once again ignored despite racking up 236 runs at an average of 59 along with a century and a half-century.
Kedar Jadhav, who underwent a hamstring surgery in June for an injury he sustained in Chennai Super Kings’ (CSK) season opener on 7 April, also returns to the team. Together with Pandey, Jadhav will be expected to shore up the middle order, especially in the absence of Kohli. Jadhav played last of his 40 ODIs in February in Cape Town.
OUT: Siddarth Kaul, Umesh Yadav, Sreyas Iyer, Virat Kohli, Suresh Raina
IN: Manish Pandey, Kedar Jadhav, Khaleel Ahmed, Ambati Rayudu, Jasprit Bumrah
India’s squad: Rohit Sharma (Captain), Shikhar Dhawan (Vice Captain) , KL Rahul, Ambati Rayudu, Manish Pandey, Kedar Jadhav, MS Dhoni, Dinesh Karthik, Hardik Pandya, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Axar Patel, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah, Shardul Thakur, Khaleel Ahmed
