Asia Cup: Kohli rested, Rohit to lead

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on Saturday decided to rest India skipper Virat Kohli while handing over the captaincy to Rohit Sharma for the Asia Cup, scheduled from September 15-28.

In a bid to strengthen the fast bowling unit with a left-arm option, the selectors named Khaleel Ahmed, the 20-year-old pacer from Rajasthan, in the 16-member squad.

“(There are) 2-3 slots (which) we are yet to seal before we pick up the final team for the World Cup. And among those slots, I think (is) one of those seamers’ slot is available,” chairman of selectors MSK Prasad said.

“Considering the workload, we have given him (Kohli) rest,” he added.

Bhuvneshwar Kumar, who missed the Tests against England due to a back injury,, returned while Umesh Yadav, who played the ODI series against England in July, was left out.

The main concern for India going into the tournament is their middle-order, for which the selectors have named the in-form Ambati Rayudu and Manish Pandey, who replaced Suresh Raina and Shreyas Iyer.

Despite an impressive Indian Premier League (IPL) 2018, Rayudu missed the limited-overs series against England for failing the Yo-Yo test.

Besides clearing the much-debated fitness parameter later, Rayudu was in excellent form in the recently-concluded quadrangular series, involving the ‘A’ and ‘B’ sides from India, Australia and South Africa, scoring 187 runs in four matches with two half-centuries.

Pandey, who last played an ODI in December 2017, was the leading run-getter in the quadrangular series with 306 runs in four matches, including a century and two half-centuries.