For the upcoming 19th Asia Games which is scheduled from September 28 to October 8 for the men’s competition in Hangzhou, the BCCI has announced the squad for the men’s cricket team. Ruturaj Gaikwad has been named as the captain.
(Ruturaj Gaikwad will be captaining the Indian Team in the 19th Asian Game. Photo – Twitter/CSKFansArmy)
The BCCI has announced the squad for Men’s Cricket that will be taking part in the upcoming 19th Asian Games. Rituraj Gaikwad will be captaining this side.
This India Team will not be the main squad as they will be preparing for the World Cup which is scheduled to happen later this year. BCCI has announced this squad with a power-packed list of youngsters like Yashasvi Jaiswal, Rahul Tripathi, Tilak Varma, and Rinku Singh among others. The likes of Yash Thakur, Sai Kishore, Venkatesh Iyer, Deepak Hooda, and Sai Sudharsan are standbys.
Rinku, whose exclusion from the T20s series in the Caribbean was questioned, made the cut while Dube, Jaiswal, Varma, and Prabhsimran Singh are the others who have been picked at the back of a stellar IPL. It was a coming-of-age season for Dube who helped CSK win a record-equalling fifth title this year.
Tilak has also been named in the team which will face the West Indies in a five-match series from August 3. Gaikwad, who will lead the side in China, is currently with the Test squad in the Caribbean. Wicketkeeper batter Jitesh Sharma and left-arm pacer Arshdeep Singh are also part of the squad.
This is not the first time the BCCI will be fielding two national teams. In 1998, one Indian team competed at the Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur while another faced Pakistan in the Sahara Cup.
India Men’s Squad: Ruturaj Gaikwad (Captain), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Rahul Tripathi, Tilak Varma, Rinku Singh, Jitesh Sharma (wk), Washington Sundar, Shahbaz Ahmed, Ravi Bishnoi, Avesh Khan, Arshdeep Singh, Mukesh Kumar, Shivam Mavi, Shivam Dube, Prabhsimran Singh (wk)
Standby list of players: Yash Thakur, Sai Kishore, Venkatesh Iyer, Deepak Hooda, Sai Sudarsan
Some questions still remain unanswered like Why Shikhar Dhawan is getting dropped from the Asian Games? Is the BCCI trying to be more dependable on Youngster’s shoulders? Dhawan has an impeccable record for the National side if either by captaining it or scoring crucial runs in ICC tournaments. This will be the first time when Ruturaj Gaikwad will be captaining the Indian side for a major occasion.
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