Asia Cup 2022: 3 Undeserving Indian Players Who Got A Spot In India Squad For Asia Cup 2022

Asia Cup 2022: 3 Undeserving Indian Players Who Got A Spot In India Squad For Asia Cup 2022. The BCCI, on Monday, announced India’s squad for Asia Cup 2022. There were some shocking omissions, the most significant of which came in the form of Jasprit Bumrah, who has been ruled out of the tournament due to a back injury.

KL Rahul has returned to the Indian squad and he will also be the vice-captain of the side in the Continental Championship. Apart from exclusions, there have been certain surprising inclusions in the Indian squad too which do not justify their place in the team. Given the pool of talent, the team India has, let’s take a look at the 3 Undeserving Indian players who found their way into India Squad for Asia Cup 2022.

India’s Squad for Asia Cup 2022: Rohit Sharma (C), KL Rahul (VC), Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant(Wk), Deepak Hooda, Dinesh Karthik (Wk), Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Yuzvendra Chahal, Ravi Bishnoi, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Arshdeep Singh, Avesh Khan.

Backup: Shreyas Iyer, Deepak Chahar, Axar Patel.

Asia Cup 2022: 3 Undeserving Indian Players Who Got A Spot In India Squad For Asia Cup 2022

Avesh Khan

Ever since his induction into the Indian team on the international stage, Avesh has not looked as effective with the ball as he has in the last couple of IPL seasons. His recent trip to the Caribbean could have ended up being a miserable one, had his heroics not come up in the 4th T20I where he took a couple of wickets on a hard track and won the Man of the Match accolade for his effort.

In the 12 innings that he has bowled so far, Avesh has been very poor in terms of economy as he has bowled just one maiden over so far and to add to that, his economy rate in T20Is is above 8.50 Runs per over. So far, he has managed to pick just 11 wickets in his international T20I career with an average of 31.81 and a strike rate of 22.

Ravi Bishnoi

Ravi Bishnoi has been one of the finest talents produced in the last couple of years. Weaving his magic in the Under19 World Cup squad of 2020, Bishnoi has come a long way as he has left behind Rahul Chahar, who was once India’s first-choice leg-spinner in the T20 format.

Bishnoi’s stats in T20Is have also been fair enough. However, the concern with him is he will hardly get any game time in presence of Yuzvendra Chahal in the squad. Also, Bishnoi lacks variation and has just the Googly to trick the opposition batsmen. However, the lack of having a leg-break and mixing up nicely with his Googlies might be a dangerous move against top-quality batsmen.

Hence, the selectors could have gone for an extra batter in the Asia Cup squad or they could have added an extra fast bowler which would have provided even greater stability to the side.

Ravichandran Ashwin

As surprising as Ravichandran Ashwin’s inclusion in the Indian squad for the ICC T20 World Cup 2021 was, similar has been the case in the Asia Cup 2022 squad. Ashwin had a forgetful campaign in the ICC T20 World Cup last year, much like the entire Indian team. Gradually, after the World Cup, he was sidelined from India’s T20 setup.

Ashwin did not have the best of IPLs in terms of his bowling performance this year. However, his contribution with the bat for Rajasthan Royals was highly unexpected. Miraculously, Ashwin was named in India’s T20 squad for the series against West Indies and with no astonishing performance on the tour, his retention in the Asia Cup squad remains a point to ponder.

Had the team management wanted more variety, they could have gone for Kuldeep Yadav, who made a remarkable comeback in IPL 2022 and continued his form in the limited international cricket he was allowed to play after IPL 2022. If the selectors have gone for Ashwin thinking of his batting prowess and if the Men in Blue are reliant on Ashwin to score runs in a certain match in the UAE, you can come to the conclusion that half of the battle is already lost.