Rohit Sharma Made A Big Statement Ahead Of T20 World Cup 2022: The Indian squad which will participate in the Asia Cup 2022, starting on August 27 in the UAE, is about “80-90%” certain of what will fly to Australia for the T20 World Cup 2022 in October, said India captain Rohit Sharma.
This is India’s squad for the Asia Cup 2022: Rohit Sharma (Captain), KL Rahul (vice-captain), Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Deepak Hooda, Rishabh Pant (wicket-keeper), Dinesh Karthik (wicket-keeper), Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, R. Ashwin, Yuzvendra Chahal,Ravi Bishnoi, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Arshdeep Singh, Avesh Khan; Standbys: Shreyas Iyer, Axar Patel and Deepak Chahar
But, the skipper added, the squad will need some fine-tuning with a few changes for Australian conditions and that couple of main bowlers – Jasprit Bumrah and Harshal Patel – are injured who will come back.
After the Asia Cup, India will play host to South Africa and Australia in white-ball matches, and that will further help them finalize their squad ahead of the T20 World Cup.
“There is still about two-and-a-half months left for the T20 World Cup. Before that, we have the Asia Cup and two home series against Australia and South Africa. So, more or less 80-90% of your team is set, of course there could be three-four changes if at all depending on the conditions,” Rohit Sharma has said.
“As of now, we have been playing in India and will play in UAE, so the conditions in Australia will be different. We need to check what suits our team in Australia.”
India are the defending champions of the Asia Cup, having won the tournament 4 years ago in 2018 under Rohit Sharma’s captaincy when regular skipper Virat Kohli was rested.
A lot of things have changed from last loss to Pakistan: Rohit Sharma
India’s first match in the tournament will be against Pakistan in Dubai on August 28. This will also be the first meeting between the two teams since their T20 World Cup 2021 encounter which Pakistan won by 10 wickets.
Rohit Sharma, though, asserted that the Indian team has gone into a significant transition since that tournament – in leadership and in batting approach – and India have also not lost any T20I series since last year’s T20 World Cup.
“Asia Cup is happening after a long time, but we played Pakistan last year in Dubai, where obviously the result did not go our way. But the Asia Cup is different now. The team is playing differently and has prepared differently, so a lot of things have changed from then. But for us, we need to assess the conditions, keep in mind the fact that we will be playing in 40-plus degrees. We need to assess all those factors and prepare accordingly,” Rohit added.
