Kohli to miss Asia Cup

Sports Desk: Captain Virat Kohli has been left out of India's 16-man squad for the Asia Cup one-day international tournament.

Rohit Sharma will lead the side instead of Kohli, who is being rested for the six-team, two-week long tournament staged in the United Arab Emirates from September 15.

It's no surprise Kohli has been given a break given the captains India in all formats and has been the standout player for his side in the see-sawing ongoing Test series in England.

Kohli has amassed 486 runs at 69.42 in the series, which India trail 2-1 but the tourists have their noses in front of the fourth Test in Southampton.

India's tour of England concludes on September 11, just four days before the start of the Asia Cup, so the decision has been made to rest their inspirational leader for the tournament with huge tour of Australia scheduled for the summer.

Manish Pandey, who dominated in last month's quadrangular series in India, Ambati Rayudu and Kedar Jadhav have been named, replacing Suresh Raina, Umesh Yadav and Siddarth Kaul, the trio who were part of India's squad for the ODI series against England in July.

Khaleel Ahmed, the 20-year-old left-arm seamer is the new face in the squad, that is captained by Sharma, with explosive opening batsman Shikhar Dhawan named vice-captain.

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

Source: Agencies


risingbd/Dhaka/Sept 1, 2018/AI