The Asia Cup will be the Indian cricket team’s next big assignment after a memorable England Tour. According to a report by news agency PTI, the Ajit Agarkar-led selection committee is likely to select the squad for the Asia Cup on August 19 or 20 depending on when the Centre of Excellence’s (CoE) Sports Science team sends the medical bulletin of all players, including that of skipper Suryakumar Yadav, who has already started batting at the nets in Bengaluru..
The report further said the BCCI selection committee won’t be too keen to tinker with the set-up as Abhishek Sharma, Sanju Samson, Suryakumar, Tilak Varma, and Hardik Pandya form a solid top five.
“Abhishek Sharma is world’s No. 1 T20 batter in last ICC rankings. Sanju Samson has been fantastic last season with both bat and gloves. So it will certainly be a tough call but Shubman in current form (although in Tests) can’t be ignored. He had a good IPL also. Problem for selectors is, there are too many performers at the top of the order,” a BCCI source privy to developments told PTI.
With so many players in top-order, it would be very difficult to find a slot for Yashasvi Jaiswal and Sai Sudharsan.
Even KL Rahul, who is now the first choice keeper in ODIs, is unlikely to be considered as he doesn’t bat in the middle-order.
Second keeper’s slot
While Samson is all but certain to be the first keeper, the choice for the second keeper’s slot will be between Jitesh Sharma and Dhruv Jurel. While Jurel was a part of the last T20 series, Jitesh had been impressive for RCB during their IPL winning campaign. He has also revelled in the role of a finisher.
Reddy unlikely to be fit in time
While Hardik Pandya remains India’s first choice white ball seam bowling all-rounder, Nitish Kumar Reddy, who suffered injury during the England series, is unlikely to get fit in time. Shivam Dube, who made a good comeback against England, is likely to find his place in the squad.
Axar and Washington Sundar are set to be the other two spin-bowling all-rounders in the squad.
The main bone of contention will be the seam-bowling attack where Bumrah and Arshdeep Singh have locked their slots. The third slot is a fight between Prasidh Krishna, who has 25 wickets in last IPL, and the burly Harshit Rana, who has ability to bowl some really heavy deliveries.
Likely contenders: Suryakumar Yadav (capt), Shubman Gill, Abhishek Sharma, Sanju Samson (wk), Tilak Verma, Shivam Dube, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Varun Chakravarthy, Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Arshdeep Singh, Harshit Rana/Prasidh Krishna, Hardik Pandya, Jitesh Sharma/Dhruv Jurel.
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