The Board of Control for Cricket in India on Friday announced the Indian squad for the Asian Games 2023. Talented Indian batter Ruturaj Gaikwad has been appointed as the captain of the Indian team. The Asian Games 2023 will be played in China from September 23 to October 8 where the men’s cricket event will take place from September 28 to October 8 in a T20 format.
Ruturaj Gaikwad, who plays for Maharashtra in domestic cricket, will be leading the young Indian squad in the Asian Games 2023. Gaikwad has been making headlines constantly with his extraordinary batting both in domestic cricket and Indian Premier League. Rinku Singh who had a great IPL for Kolkata Knight Riders last season also got a place in the squad alongside Jitesh Sharma. The board has added two wicket-keepers to the team as Prabhsimran Singh has also earned a spot.
The reason for going with the young team for the Asian Games is ODI World Cup 2023 will take place at the same time and as a result, all the senior players have been ruled out including Rohit Sharma, star players Virat Kohli, Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj and others.
Players like Avesh Khan, Arshdeep Singh, Mukesh Kumar, and Shivam Mavi will take care of the pace bowling department while Washington Sundar, Shahbaz Ahmed, and Ravi Bishnoi will oversee the spin setup. The BCCI has also declared a stand-by list of the players which includes Yash Thakur, Sai Kishore, Venkatesh Iyer, Deepak Hooda, and Sai Sudarsan in it.
India Squad: Ruturaj Gaikwad (Captain), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Rahul Tripathi, Tilak Varma, Rinku Singh, Jitesh Sharma (wk), Washington Sundar, Shahbaz Ahmed, Ravi Bishnoi, Avesh Khan, Arshdeep Singh, Mukesh Kumar, Shivam Mavi, Shivam Dube, Prabhsimran Singh (wk).
Standby list of players: Yash Thakur, Sai Kishore, Venkatesh Iyer, Deepak Hooda, Sai Sudarsan.