Ruturaj Gaikwad to captain as BCCI announces 15-men India T20I squad for Asian Games

Published at :July 15, 2023 at 4:41 AM

Modified at :July 15, 2023 at 4:58 AM

The BCCI on Friday, 14th July, announced a 15-member India T20I squad for the Asian Games in Hangzhou.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), on July 14, 2023, announced that Ruturaj Gaikwad will captain the men’s squad in the upcoming Asian Games 2023 to be held in Hangzhou in China.

Cricket was part of two editions of the Asiad in 2010 and 2014, but India did not send women’s and men’s teams. After being left out in the 2018 edition in Jakarta, India are set to compete in the Asian Games after a 12-year hiatus.

The Asian Games are scheduled from September 23 to October 8 this year. India will send teams for the Asian Games cricket competition for the first time.

The last time an Indian team participated in such an event was in Commonwealth Games in 1998 in Kuala Lumpur.

The squad announced by the BCCI for Asian Games doesn’t include any of the senior players like Ravindra Jadeja, Hardik Pandya, Virat Kohli or Rohit Sharma, as they will be busy with prepping for the World Cup 2023 which begins on October 5.

Yashasvi Jaiswal, Rahul Tripathi, and Rinku Singh named in the Indian squad

While it was widely expected that Shikhar Dhawan might lead the team in the event, Ruturaj Gaikwad has been handed the captaincy of the team which also sees many names of players who have done well in the IPL 2023, given that the cricket event in Asian Games will be played in 20-over format.

The squad sees names like Yashasvi Jaiswal, Rinku Singh, Tilak Varma, Jitesh Sharma, Washington Sundar, and many more.

“The Men’s Selection Committee has picked India’s squad for the 19th Asian Games Hangzhou 2022 to be held from 19th September to 8th October 2023 at Zhejiang University of Technology Pingfeng Cricket Field. The men’s cricket competition will take place from 28th September to 8th October in a T20 format,” BCCI stated.

Team India (Senior Men) squad for 19th Asian Games: 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 Sudharsan.

https://twitter.com/BCCI/status/1679905293021609985