Asia Cup 2022 is now less than a month away. The fifteenth edition of the tournament is scheduled to begin on August 27 and will end on September 11. The tournament will be held in UAE while Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) will remain its host.
This year’s Asia Cup was originally scheduled to be held in Sri Lanka but had to be shifted to the UAE due to the political crisis in the island nation. UAE will be hosting the Asia Cup for the fourth time. It was the venue for the first-ever Asia Cup in 1984 before hosting it again in 1995. The previous edition was also held in the UAE in 2018. India have so far won all the Asia Cup tournaments that were held in the UAE.
The Men in Blue are once again one of the strongest contenders to win the upcoming edition. Apart from India, five other teams – Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and a the winner of the qualifier event – will participate in Asia Cup 2022.
India’s squad for Asia Cup 2022 is yet to be announced and is likely to be out soon. The selectors’ decision in recent times are enough to predict the India squad that will go the UAE for Asia Cup 2022. So before the tournament gets underway, we are predicting the India squad for Asia Cup 2022.
Asia Cup 2022 India squad:
Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul are set to be the designated openers for the team in the Asia Cup. Rahul has not played since the conclusion of the IPL due to an injury and Covid-19 and is set to return to action through the Asia Cup.
Ishan Kishan looks highly unlikely to be a part of the squad especially after being named in the squad for the Zimbabwe tour. Kishan has been benched in recent times and is unlikely to make it to the squad. Apart from Ishan, the likes of Deepak Hooda, Sanju Samson and Axar Patel have been named in the squad for the Zimbabwe tour too.
They are also likely to be snubbed for Asia Cup 2022. Hooda, Samson and Axar were in contention but the selectors’ decision to name them in the squad for the Zimbabwe series has made it more or less clear that they will not feature in the continental championship.
Returning to the squad for the Asia Cup 2022, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Shreyas Iyer and Dinesh Karthik are set to take responsibility of the middle-order while Rishabh Pant is looking destined to be the wicketkeeper-batsman.
Hardik Pandya and Ravindra Jadeja are set to be the allrounders of the team. In the bowling department, Jasprit Bumrah and Bhuvneshwar Kumar will be leading the pack while Harshal Patel and Arshdeep Singh are likely to be their partners. As far as the spin department is concerned, Yuzvendra Chahal looks certain to make it to the squad and he could be accompanied by Ravi Bishnoi and Ravichandran Ashwin.
So here is the predicted 15-man India squad for Asia Cup 2022.
| India squad |
| Rohit Sharma |
| KL Rahul |
| Virat Kohli |
| Suryakumar Yadav |
| Shreyas Iyer |
| Dinesh Karthik |
| Rishabh Pant (WK) |
| Hardik Pandya |
| Ravindra Jadeja |
| Ravichandran Ashwin |
| Bhuvneshwar Kumar |
| Harshal Patel |
| Jasprit Bumrah |
| Ravi Bishnoi |
| Arshdeep Singh |