The Asia Cup is set to return after four years. The 2022 edition, slated to be held in Sri Lanka in August, will be played in the T20I format organized to help teams prepare for the T20 World Cup later in the year in Australia.
India are the current defending champions – they won the 2018 Asia Cup which was in the ODI format and also won the previous edition – in 2016 which was, for the first time in history, in T20 format. The Men In Blue are also the most successful team in the Asia Cup, having won the title 7 times.
A number of players from India’s campaign in 2018 Asia Cup are not with the team anymore. While the likes of MS Dhoni and Ambati Rayudu have retired from international cricket, a few others were later dropped and are no more in the scheme of things of the national side.
Here are 4 such players from the 2018 Asia Cup winning squad who are nowhere close to the team now:
Kedar Jadhav
Kedar Jadhav was a key part of the Indian team going into the 2019 World Cup. Apart from his middle-order batting, Jadhav also gave a handy off-spin option which India used well at the time.
But dismal show at the 2019 World Cup saw him being dropped from the eleven. Continuation of unsatisfactory form, for India and in the IPL, led to his permanent ouster from the national side in early 2020.
Manish Pandey
A talented batsman and amongst the greatest Indian domestic players, Manish Pandey, however, remained an in-and-out member of the national side between 2015 and 2021. Everytime Pandey was dropped from the Indian team he went and plundered big runs in domestic cricket and made a return to Team India.
However, his last return in 2021 seems to be the ultimate one and he hasn’t been given attention by selectors since last year. Who knows whether Pandey, still 32 years old, has another return to cap off his unfulfilled India career? But that looks unlikely given the depth of batting talent India currently have at the moment.
Siddarth Kaul
On the back of a terrific 2018 IPL season with SRH, Siddarth Kaul played 3 ODIs and 3 T20Is in 2018 and 2019 with little success and was cast aside by the selectors and the management.
A steep dip in form in the IPL and in domestic cricket saw Kaul even struggle to get matches and wickets in the IPL in the past three seasons.
Khaleel Ahmed
Khaleel Ahmed is currently resurging his career as he took 16 wickets in IPL 2022 for Delhi Capitals. He made big waved in 2018 and 2019 in domestic cricket and in the IPL which saw him get 25 matches for India in those two years.
But the next two years brought struggles with form and fitness that took him away from the national side. 24-year-old Khaleed though has time on his hand to make a comeback to the Indian team.
