With just around three weeks left for the Asia Cup 2022, which has been shifted to the UAE from Sri Lanka, a lot is being talked on who would get a berth in the 15-member India squad for the showpiece event and who would fail to make a cut.
Moreover, the 2022 T20 World Cup will be held just after a month of the Asia Cup and several reports suggest that the squad for both the tournaments will almost be the same.
In the recent times, the Indian board’s focus has been on constituting a strong squad of 15 men for the T20 World Cup 2022 in Australia as the Men In Blue had a horrific campaign in the UAE last year. Notably, India had failed to make it to the knockouts and had alsowent dowm to arch-rivals Pakistan in a must-win group game.
As per a report in Cricbuzz, the same set of players will also feature in the T20Is against South Africa and Australia, in September and October at home, as the selectors want to give the team management sufficient game time ahead of the mega ICC tournament.
If the report comes true, it means that the squad will see the return of all the big guns, including Virat Kohli, Jasprit Bumrah, and KL Rahul, who missed out on the tour of the West Indies and will remain unavailable for the Zimbabwe ODIs either due to personal reasons or injury concerns.
Also, the injury of opener KL Rahul was also reportedly discussed at the virtual meeting of the selectors after which the squad for the Zimbabwe ODIs was announced.
As of now, reports suggest that the top-order batter hasn’t recovered fully after recently contracting Covid-19 and is likely to return for the Asia Cup in the UAE next month.
Reports also suggested that that the selectors would announce the squad for Asia Cup on August 8 and the T20 regulars, who are currently in the Caribbean for a five-match T20I series, have exactly 4 more games to put a strong case for their selections.