The All India Selection Committee has officially announced the much-awaited squad for the Asia Cup 2023. Chief selector Ajit Agarkar and captain Rohit Sharma attended a press conference to release the list of players. The continental tournament is scheduled to play in Pakistan and Sri Lanka while the Indian team will play all their matches in the Island nation where the pitch is expected to assist the spinners.
India have picked three spinners in the squad – Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel and Kuldeep Yadav, while Yuzvendra Chahal and Ravichandran Ashwin failed to make the cut.
Skipper Rohit talked about the selection of spinners in the squad as he suggested that Axar got the nod ahead of the others for his batting credentials as the southpaw has done with the bat in recent times.
“We had a deep discussion on off-spinner and leggie. What boiled down to was batting option at 8 and.9. Axar had a good run with the bat this year in white ball, he played really well in IPL as well. We Axar having there we have the option of left-handed batter land create the long batting depth,” Rohit said in the press conference.
Rohit also asserted that Ravichandran Ashwin and Washington Sundar were the other spinners who were in consideration but they went ahead with the other three options.
“We thought of Ashwin and Washington. But as you can see Chahal missed out because we can only pick 17. And we cannot drop a seamer, seamers will be crucial in the next two months. Doors are not closed for anyone,” Rohit further said.
In the pace department, India picked Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj, Shardul Thakur and Prasidh Krishna in the 17-member squad while Hardik Pandya will also be available to bowl which is confirmed by the skipper.
India Asia Cup Squad: Rohit Sharma (captain), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Ishan Kishan, Suryakumar Yadav, Tilak Varma, KL Rahul, Hardik Pandya (vice-captain), Jasprit Bumrah, Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammad Shami, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, Sanju Samson (back up to Rahul)
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