India will kick-start their Asia Cup 2023 campaign on September 2 against Pakistan in Kandy, and then will play Nepal on September 4. The top two teams from both groups will play in the Super 4 round, from where the top two sides will meet in the final.
India have picked a 17-man squad for the continental tournament. While the bowlers are expected to be rotated – pacers for workload management, and spinners based on the opposition and the conditions – the batting order might remain rigid for India. This could lead to a couple of batters not getting a single chance to play in the tournament.
Two Indians players who are likely to be on the bench for the entire Asia Cup 2023:
Suryakumar Yadav
Shreyas Iyer is the incumbent number 4 and since he’s back in the squad – Iyer has been declared completely fit for the Asia Cup and participated with full intensity in the practice matches in Bangalore – Iyer will slot back in the number 4 position.
Because Shreyas Iyer is coming after an injury and will be playing international cricket for the first time since March, the Indian team management will be giving him as many matches as possible to get back his form and gain back the touch as a batsman. That even a few failures at the start of the Asia Cup would mean Iyer gets the backing. This effectively means that Suryakumar Yadav is set to warm the bench for the entire tournament unless Iyer or any other top-order batsman gets injured.
Suryakumar Yadav was given a chance in the middle-order in the absence of Shreyas Iyer in the ODI matches against Australia – where he bagged 3 consecutive ducks – and in the West Indies as well, where he managed scores of 19, 24, and 25. SKY has failed to grab his opportunities in ODI cricket: in his last 21 ODI innings since the start of 2022, Suryakumar Yadav averages only 20 with just one half-century to his name. It’s still a big show of faith in Suryakumar Yadav by the management that he’s selected in the Asia Cup squad, and is in plans for the World Cup 2023 as well.
Tilak Varma
Indian selectors and the team management made the bold and a bit surprising call of handing a maiden ODI squad call-up to the 20-year-old Tilak Varma for a big tournament like the Asia Cup and this close to the World Cup.
After a couple of impressive IPL seasons with the Mumbai Indians, Tilak Varma got his maiden T20I call-up and he did very well against the West Indies – Tilak was India’s top-scorer in the 5-T20I series against West Indies. Tilak Varma has a terrific List-A record: in 25 List-A matches, he averages 56 with a strike rate of 101 having notched up 5 centuries and 5 fifties.
One of the important factors for his maiden ODI call-up was his being a left-hander, something the Indian top-order lacks – in India’s strongest and first-choice XI, all top 6 batters are right-handed.
The issue here is that even though Tilak has been called up to the squad, he’s highly unlikely to play in the tournament, because, as mentioned above, India would like to give Shreyas Iyer as many games as possible to regain his form and get confidence ahead of the World Cup.
Nonetheless, both Suryakumar Yadav and Tilak Varma are seen as backup batsmen only at the moment. If India do rest players like Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli for the Nepal match, then SKY and TIlak might play.
India’s squad for Asia Cup 2023: Rohit Sharma (C), Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya (VC), Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammed Siraj, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul, Tilak Varma, Ishan Kishan, Axar Patel, Shardul Thakur, Kuldeep Yadav, Prasidh Krishna, Sanju Samson (traveling backup)
