Pacer Ishant Sharma has been dropped from India’s squads for Asia Cup and T20 World Cup. Middle-order batsman Suresh Raina too has been excluded from the squad announced for Asia Cup and will be replaced by Cheteshwar Pujara. Veteran Yuvraj Singh though has been recalled to the T20 side.
Selectors named the Indian team for the two major cricket tournaments on Tuesday and took a hard look at India’s poor performance in the ongoing tour of New Zealand. While Ishant was penalised for his jaded performance in the ODI series – picking two wickets in two of the five matches, Raina has also been woefully out of form – averaging 28 from three matches.
Asia Cup starts from February 25 and World T20 begins March 16 – both to be played in Bangladesh.
India Asia Cup squad: MS Dhoni (C), Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ambati Rayudu, Ajinkya Rahane, Ravindra Jadeja, R Ashwin, Bhuvneshwar, Mohammad Shami, Varun Aaron, Stuart Binny, Amit Mishra and Ishwar Pandey.
India squad for WT20: MS Dhoni (C), Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Suresh Raina, Yuvraj Singh, Ajinkya Rahane, Ravindra Jadeja, R Ashwin, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohammad Shami, Stuart Binny, Amit Mishra, Mohit Sharma and Varun Aaron.
