The 2022 Asia Cup is a six-team men’s cricket tournament that will be held in the United Arab Emirates between August 27 and September 11. The tournament was originally scheduled to be held in Sri Lanka, but shifted to the UAE due to political turmoil and the economic crisis in the island nation.
India have named star batter Virat Kohli in their squad, which will be led by Rohit Sharma.
Pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah was however ruled out with injury. Bumrah, who is reported to be suffering from back spasms, is undergoing rehab at the National Cricket Academy in Bengaluru.
Three players – Shreyas Iyer, Axar Patel and Deepak Chahar – were named as standbys.
Kohli, 33, was rested for the recent tours to the West Indies and Zimbabwe, and has not scored a century in any format since 2019. Last year he was replaced by Rohit as India’s all-format skipper.
The last edition of the Asia Cup was a 50-over contest but this time the format will be T20. Defending champions India are the most successful team, having won the trophy on seven occasions. India’s first match is against Pakistan on August 28 in Dubai.
Pakistan were dealt a heavy blow ahead of the tournament as star left-arm pacer Shaheen Shah Afridi was ruled out due to a knee injury he picked up in Sri Lanka.
Here are all the squads for the 2022 Asia Cup:
Group A
India: Rohit Sharma (c), KL Rahul, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant, Deepak Hooda, Dinesh Karthik, Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, R Ashwin, Yuzvendra Chahal, Ravi Bishnoi, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Arshdeep Singh, Avesh Khan. Standby: Shreyas Iyer, Axar Patel, Deepak Chahar.
Pakistan: Babar Azam (c), Shadab Khan, Asif Ali, Fakhar Zaman, Haider Ali, Haris Rauf, Iftikhar Ahmed, Khushdil Shah, Mohammad Nawaz, Mohammad Rizwan, Mohammad Wasim Jnr, Naseem Shah, Shahnawaz Dahani, Usman Qadir.
Qualifier: Final team in Group A yet to be determined
Group B
Afghanistan: Mohammad Nabi (c), Najibullah Zadran, Afsar Zazai, Azmatullah Omarzai, Farid Ahmad Malik, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Hashmatullah Shahidi, Hazratullah Zazai, Ibrahim Zadran, Karim Janat, Mujeeb ur Rahman, Najibullah Zadran, Naveen ul Haq, Noor Ahmad, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Rashid Khan, Samiullah Shinwari. Standby: Nijat Masood, Qais Ahmed, Sharafuddin Ashraf.
Bangladesh: Shakib Al Hasan (c), Anamul Haque, Mushfiqur Rahim, Afif Hossain, Mosaddek Hossain, Mahmudullah, Mahedi Hasan, Mohammad Saifuddin, Hasan Mahmud, Mustafizur Rahman, Nasum Ahmed, Sabbir Rahman, Mehidy Hasan Miraz, Ebadot Hossain, Parvez Hossain Emon, Nurul Hasan Sohan, Taskin Ahmed.
Sri Lanka: Dasun Shanaka (c), Danushka Gunathilaka, Pathum Nissanka, Kusal Mendis, Charith Asalanka, Bhanuka Rajapaksa, Ashen Bandara, Dhananjaya de Silva, Wanindu Hasaranga, Maheesh Theekshana, Jeffrey Vandersay, Praveen Jayawickrama, Chamika Karunaratne, Dilshan Madushanka, Matheesha Pathirana, Nuwanidu Fernando, Dushmantha Chameera, Dinesh Chandimal.
Qualifier Squads
Ahead of the tournament proper, Hong Kong, Kuwait, Singapore and UAE meet at the 2022 Asia Cup Qualifier to determine the final spot in Group A.
Hong Kong: Nizakat Khan (c), Kinchit Shah, Zeeshan Ali, Haroon Arshad, Babar Hayat, Aftab Hussain, Ateeq Iqbal, Aizaz Khan, Ehsan Khan, Scott McKechnie (wk), Ghazanfar Mohammad, Yasim Murtaza, Dhananjay Rao, Wajid Shah, Ayush Shukla, Ahan Trivedi, Mohammad Waheed.
Kuwait: Mohammed Aslam (c), Nawaf Ahmed, Mohammad Amin, Meet Bhavsar (wk), Adnan Idrees, Muhammad Kashif, Shiraz Khan, Sayed Monib, Usman Patel, Yasin Patel, Shahrukh Quddus, Ravija Sandaruwan, Mohamed Shafeeq, Haroon Shahid, Edson Silva, Bilal Tahir, Ali Zaheer.
Singapore: Amjad Mahboob (c), Reeza Gaznavi, Janak Prakash, Manpreet Singh, Vinoth Baskaran, Aryaman Uchil, Surendran Chandramohan, Rohan Rangarajan, Akshay Roopak Puri, Aman Desai, Jeevan Santhanam, Vihaan Maheshwari, Aryaveer Chaudhary, Aritra Dutta.
UAE: Chundangapoyil Rizwan (c), Sultan Ahmed, Sabir Ali, Vriitya Aravind, Kashif Daud, Zawar Farid, Basil Hameed, Zahoor Khan, Aryan Lakra, Karthik Meiyappan, Rohan Mustafa, Fahad Nawaz, Ahmed Raza, Alishan Sharafu, Junaid Siddique, Chirag Suri, Muhammad Waseem.
Inputs from AFP