India squad for Asian Games: Ruturaj Gaikwad captain; Shivam Dube returns Rinku, Prabhsimran earn maiden call-ups
Ruturaj Gaikwad was named as captain of India’s men’s cricket team for the Asian Games while Rinku Singh, Prabhsimran Singh earned their maiden India call-ups. The men’s cricket competition will take place from 28th September to 8th October in a T20 format.
Ruturaj Gaikwad(BCCI)
BCCI had announced earlier that the squad for the Asian Games will not feature players who are in contention for a World Cup spot, which ruled out all senior players including captain Rohit Sharma, star players Virat Kohli, Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj and others.
There were reports that the team might be led by Shikhar Dhawan in the absence of senior players but BCCI has decided to look ahead at the future by naming Gaikwad the captain of the side.
The young squad also features young batters Rahul Tripathi, Yashasvi Jaiswal, and Tilak Varma. Both Jaiswal and Tilak earned already their maiden T20I call-ups for the West Indies series.
That Rinku, Jitesh Sharma and Tripathi were in contention for the Asian Games squad was evident when they were named in India’s T20I squad for the West Indies series.
All-rounders Shivam Dube, Washington Sundar, and Shahbaz Ahmed have returned to the squad. Dube’s excellent power-hitting for CSK in IPL 2023 may have had a big role in his return to the scheme of things as a seam-bowling all-rounder.
Jitesh Sharma is likely to be the first-choice keeper of the side while Punjab’s Prabhsimran has been picked as a back.
The interesting bit is the selection of Arshdeep Singh and Avesh Khan as lead seamers, which means that the duo won’t be considered for the ODI World Cup. This also indicates that the selection committee led by Ajit Agarkar is confident of getting the services of Jasprit Bumrah back for the World Cup.
Ravi Bishnoi is the lone specialist spinner in the squad with Shahbaz And Washington being the spin-bowling all-rounders.
Deepak Hooda, who was a part of India’s T20 World Cup squad last year, has called behind the pecking order. His names, however, features in the standby list which also includes Yash Thakur, Sai Kishore, Venkatesh Iyer, and Sai Sudarsan.
India squad for 19th Asian Games: Ruturaj Gaikwad (Captain), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Rahul Tripathi, Tilak Varma, Rinku Singh, Jitesh Sharma (wk), Washington Sundar, Shahbaz Ahmed, Ravi Bishnoi, Avesh Khan, Arshdeep Singh, Mukesh Kumar, Shivam Mavi, Shivam Dube, Prabhsimran Singh (wk)
Standby list of players: Yash Thakur, Sai Kishore, Venkatesh Iyer, Deepak Hooda, Sai Sudarsan
