India’s 17-man squad for the Asia Cup 2023 was announced on Monday. Captain Rohit Sharma and chairman of selectors Ajit Agarkar attended a press conference to name the squad and answer questions.
The big topic of the number 4 position was raised and Rohit Sharma tackled it nicely. Shreyas Iyer is back in the squad after being away since March due to his back injury. Iyer is set to play at number 4 in the Asia Cup, but captain Rohit Sharma also asserted that players in the middle-order will be needed to be flexible in their order, and anyone from number 4 to 7 can be shuffled.
Still a lot of games for us to get the combinations right: Rohit Sharma
India have 6 ODIs in the Asia Cup 2023 if they make it to the final.
3 ODIs after that against Australia, plus two warm-up matches ahead of the World Cup.
Rohit Sharma said that while the top three of Rohit, Gill, and Virat Kohli is fixed, India will continue to experiment in the middle-order and with bowling combination in the Asia Cup to finalize their order and players for the World Cup 2023.
“We have guys who can bat at no 4, it is about top 3 and others, it is about players doing well in the XI. Unfortunately, we have had many injuries, so we had to try and rotate, workload management etc, try out combinations,” Rohit said.
“We tried stuff and once we get into the World Cup, we want to be assured that this is what we want to do. There is still a lot of games for us to get the combinations right and give the guys a go as well & 9 or so games we have,” he added.
One big exclusion was leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal, and Sanju is a traveling keeper backup. Suryakumar Yadav and Tilak Varma, who is uncapped in ODI format, have been picked in the squad.
India squad for Asia Cup 2023: Rohit Sharma (C), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul, Tilak Varma, Ishan Kishan, Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya (VC), Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Shardul Thakur, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Siraj, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, Prasidh Krishna, Sanju Samson (travelling backup)
