The BCCI has announced the squad for the 19th Asian Games set to take place from 28th September to 8th October. The Men in Blue will be led by Ruturaj Gaikwad which essentially means that it is time up for Shikhar Dhawan in the Indian Cricket Team. The veteran opener despite having a Grade C BCCI contract has been snubbed by the apex board of the country.
Ruturaj Gaikwad to lead in Asian Games, IPL 2023 stars preferred, Dhawan snubbed
The Indian Cricket Team will participate in the Asian Games where the Cricket tournament will be held in its shortest format, i.e. T20s and a relatively inexperienced team will be headed by Ruturaj Gaikwad. But the absence of Shikhar Dhawan raises many questions. Is his time over for the Men in Blue? or will be a standby in the World Cup 2023 squad?
One reason can be with the number of injuries in the main squad, Dhawan has been kept on standby for the mega-upcoming tournament. On the other hand, since Dhawan is not a part of the T20 squad in whatever capacity, he has not been selected for the same.
However, the BCCI might have some plans for Dhawan, given that he still is a centrally contracted player (Grade C) and earns 1 crore every year. On the other hand, some of the high-performing stars of IPL 2023 got their deserved chances in the squad.
Players like Gaikwad, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Tilak Varma, Rinku Singh, and Jitesh Sharma have been duly rewarded to represent the nation in the upcoming Asian Games.
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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.
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