India rest Virat Kohli for upcoming Asia Cup

India skipper Virat Kohli has been rested for the 2018 Asia Cup which starts on 15 September in the United Arab Emirates.

The BCCI have confirmed that opening batsman Rohit Sharma will lead the side in Kohli’s absence.

Rajasthan left-arm seamer Khaleel Ahmed has been handed a maiden international call-up after a standout domestic season.

Manish Pandey earned a recall after strong displays in domestic cricket as well as a star turn for India B.

Also returning to the squad is Kedar Jadhav, who suffered an injury in the IPL in April but returned to action for the India B squad in the recent quadrangular One-day series also involving India A, South Africa A and Australia A.

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Manish Pandey was rewarded for his excellent form in the quadrangular series

It was during that series that Pandey cemented his recall by whacking 306 runs in four matches, including an unbeaten 73 in the final.

Ambati Rayudu has been selected for the squad again despite failing a fitness Test when he was called to play in the limited overs portion of the tour to England.

Suresh Raina, Umesh Yadav, Siddarth Kaul, and Shreyas Iyer were the men to miss out having turned out for India in the ODI series defeat to England.

It is likely that Kohli was rested with an eye on the Tests against the Windies in October, which start less than a week after the final of the Asia Cup on 28 September.

Hardik Pandya, Shikhar Dhawan, Jasprit Bumrah and KL Rahul are the Test players included in the group.

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

 

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