Asia Cup 2023 squad: Ajit Agarkar calls Shikhar Dhawan ‘terrific’ player while disclosing preferred openers

India’s Asia Cup 2023 squad tries to keep a balance between experience and youngsters. Tilak Verma, who just displayed exemplary performance against West Indies will be watched closely ahead of the ODI World Cup 2023. With youngsters like Shubman Gill and Ishan Kishan, the Asia Cup 2023 squad includes experienced players like Shreyas Iyer and KL Rahul.

Veteran cricket legend Sunil Gavaskar was happy with the selections and said this is the top team. “Pretty much on expected lines. People will always talk about one or two here and there but I think this is a top team. Excellent team. Probably the best we could have chosen,” he says on India Today.

The exclusion of leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal also raised some eyebrows as the spinner has been phenomenal in recent tournaments, especially the Indian Premier League. “We thought about an offspinner as well, [R] Ashwin and Washy [Washington Sundar], but right now you see Chahal had to miss out because we could only pick 17 players,” India captain Rohit Sharma said at the press conference.

“The only way we could have picked him was if one of the seamers was missing. We can’t do that because seamers are going to play a big role in the next two months. A few of them are coming back after a long time, so we wanted to have a good look at them, get them in, and see what they have to offer. Having said that, no doors are closed on anyone. Anyone can come in anytime. If we feel like we need Chahal for the World Cup, we’ll see how we can squeeze him in, same goes for Washy or Ashwin,” he added.

Team India’s Asia Cup 2023 squad:

Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul, Suryakumar Yadav, Tilak Varma, Ishan Kishan, Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Shardul Thakur, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj, Kuldeep Yadav, Prasidh Krishna

Reserve: Sanju Samson

Updated: 21 Aug 2023, 06:05 PM IST