3 Players Who Might Not Make It To The Indian Squad For Asia Cup 2022: India will kick off their Asia Cup title defense on August 28 in the extremely hyped-up encounter against arch-rivals Pakistan, which will be the first meeting between the two sides since Pakistan’s 10-wicket win at the T20 World Cup last year.
The Men In Blue had won the tournament back in 2018 under Rohit Sharma’s captaincy when Virat Kohli was rested. Now Rohit is India’s full-time captain, and he has some tough decisions to make regarding the structure of the 15-man squad.
While 10-11 players pick themselves in the squad, India have to ponder hard upon the remaining 4-5 spots for which more than half-a-dozen players have auditioned so far.
Here are three players who are likely to miss out from India’s Asia Cup 2022 squad:
Shreyas Iyer
Shreyas Iyer seems to have lost the place for the Asia Cup and T20 World Cup squad already after he was dropped from the eleven mid-series against West Indies. He was dismissed for a 4-ball duck in the first T20I, then managed only 10 runs in 11 balls in the second T20I and then trudged on to a 27-ball 24 in the third before being dropped.
Iyer has been largely disappointing in T20Is recently: after the IPL 2022, Iyer has featured in 9 T20I innings for India, in which he has managed an average of 19 with a dismal strike rate of 110!
With Suryakumar Yadav sealing his spot with thunderous form and Deepak Hooda also looking in great touch in the infrequent chances, Shreyas Iyer, who continues to struggle against high pace and short bowling, is likely to find himself out of the Asia Cup squad.
Sanju Samson
Although Sanju Samson has done well for India recently – including hitting his maiden T20I and ODI fifties – there is a good chance that Samson could be excluded from the Asia Cup squad.
Virat Kohli and KL Rahul will return to the squad and Rishabh Pant and Hooda are ahead in the pecking order than Samson, it is seemingly difficult to make room for the Kerala and Rajasthan Royals batter.
Avesh Khan
Harshal Patel’s side strain injury has ruled him out of the Asia Cup. This means that other pacers could get in a look by the management; however, it is unlikely to be Avesh Khan, who has been largely inconsistent with his performances in the India blues so far.
Yes, he’s good days – 4/18 vs South Africa, 2/17 vs West Indies – but those have come after being back for a long time by the management after some really poor outings – as suggested by his economy of 9.21 before the Florida leg of the West Indies series.
Further, Arshdeep Singh apparently have got the management’s nod, especially in the absence of Harshal. And there is a chance for either Mohammed Shami or Deepak Chahar to make a return to the T20I side.
So, here is our predicted 15-man India squad for Asia Cup 2022:
Rohit Sharma (C), KL Rahul (VC), Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant, Dinesh Karthik, Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah, Yuzvendra Chahal, Arshdeep Singh, Deepak Hooda, Harshal Patel, Mohammed Shami/R Ashwin
