Asia Cup 2018: Virat Kohli rested, Rohit Sharma named captain

India’s regular skipper Virat Kohli has been rested while Rohit Sharma would lead the side in his absence in the upcoming Asia Cup scheduled to be held from September 15 to 28 in the UAE.

Shikhar Dhawan has been named as Sharma’s deputy. India’s current international assignment is in England which would end on September 11-just four days before the tournament behind and chairman of selectors MSK Prasad explained why they decided to rest Kohli. After the Asia Cup final, India’s home series against the West Indies would begin on October 4 following which is the highly anticipated tour of Australia.

“Considering the workload we’ve given him rest,” Prasad said. “He has been playing continuously, yes he’s on the road since IPL, that’s looking at workload. I’ve been [to England] for the third Test match, we sat for a discussion regarding workload management, so we need to preserve some players who are playing all three formats. Looking at that workload issue we have started with Virat and rested him. Other all-format players will also be rested in due course,” he added further.

There isn’t much change to the squad apart from Kohli’s absence. Named like KL Rahul, Hardik Pandya, Dinesh Karthik and Jasprit Bumrah, who are a part of the Indian team in the ongoing Test series in England, have been included in the squad.

The Indian middle-order would rest on the shoulders of Manish Pandey, Ambati Rayudu and Kedar Jadhav. Pandey has been in solid touch in the Quadrangular series where he racked up 306 runs in four innings without being dismissed. Rayudu, courtesy of some strong performances in the IPL was initially picked for the tour of England but later had to be dropped because he had failed to clear the Yo-Yo test.

Jadhav also makes his comeback into the Indian team after having sustained an injury on the first day of the Indian Premier League, which saw him not only miss out on the rest of the tournament but also the England tour.  The bowling department would see a new face in the form of 20-year Khaleel Ahmed.

The Rajasthan left-arm speedster has played only four first-class matches and has played 29 games in List A and T20 cricket. Khaleel was a part of India A’s tour of England in June-July and he also featured in the Quadrangular series. In his last nine games for India A, Khaleel has had 15 scalps to his name and he hasn’t gone wicketless in any of the games he has played so far. Bhuvneshwar Kumar also makes a comeback after a back injury.

Prasad further added that most of the Indian squad that would participate in the World Cup in England next year have been identified and that two or three slots are left to decided-one of them being in the fast bowling department.

“Two to three slots we are yet to finalise, so for those slots, we are trying and we’ll look at these 24 matches [in the lead-up to the World Cup]. You’ll come to know the slots more specifically as we go ahead … Among those, one of those seamers’ slots is open. We are looking at a left-arm option in Khaleel,” stated Prasad.

Rohit Sharma (c), Shikhar Dhawan (vc), KL Rahul, Ambati Rayudu, Manish Pandey, Kedar Jadhav, MS Dhoni (wk), Dinesh Karthik, Hardik Pandya, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Axar Patel, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah, Shardul Thakur, Khaleel Ahmed.