India’s second-string Men’s team, coached by VVS Laxman, left for China. Ruturaj Gaikwad-Co will be playing the Asian Games from September 28. However, captain Gaikwad will join the team next week as he is part of the India ODI squad for the first two ODIs against Australia starting from September 22. The Rest of the Asian Games squad members, like Rahul Tripathi, Rinku Singh, Shivam Dube, Arshdeep Singh, and Akash Deep have jetted off to China for the Continental Games.
For the uninitiated, Gaikwad-led India will begin their Asian Games campaign from the quarter-finals on October 28, owing to finishing higher in the ICC Men’s T20I Rankings. BCCI wants Gaikwad to have some game time before the knockout matches of the Asian Games, and hence, the opening batter is part of the series against Australia.
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India will have seven days before they play their first quarter-final match. VVS Laxman is likely to hold intra-squad games. The second-string team for the Asian Games last featured in Ireland T20 series. Players like Rinku Singh, Shivam Dube, Arshdeep, and Ravi Bishnoi Gaikwad performed well. Besides playing in that series, a few of the above-mentioned players also played in domestic T20 competitions to prepare for the Asian Games.
This will be the first time Gaikwad will be in charge of Team India. The CSK opener got the nod ahead of the much-experienced Shikhar Dhawan owing to his stellar performances in IPL for CSK. Gaikwad has consistently scored more than 400 runs in the last three editions of IPL. Also, Gaikwad comes across as a very calm person.
Indian Cricket Team (Men’s) Squad for the Asian Games 2023 :
Ruturaj Gaikwad (c), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Rahul Tripathi, Rinku Singh, Jitesh Sharma (wicket-keeper), Washington Sundar, Shahbaz Ahmed, Ravi Bishnoi, Avesh Khan, Arshdeep Singh, Mukesh Kumar, Shivam Dube, Prabhsimran Singh (wicket-keeper), Akash Deep
