‘Bach ke rehna Pakistan walo’ – Fans react as Indian Cricket Board announce India’s squad for Asia Cup 2023

The Indian Cricket Board finally announced India’s squad for the upcoming Asia Cup 2023 which is set to begin on August 30. The tournament will be jointly hosted by Pakistan and Sri Lanka. The Board arranged a meeting on Monday, August 21 where the Board’s president Jai Shah was also present.

India’s chief selector Ajit Agarkar also attended the meeting with India’s head coach Rahul Dravid and captain Rohit Sharma. However, only Rohit and Agarkar attended the press conference and announced the squad. The fans were shocked as veteran spinner Yuzvendra Chahal wasn’t included in the squad. However, the tournament will mark the return of KL Rahul and Shreyas Iyer.

Talking about the tournament, the opening match will be played between the co-host Pakistan and Nepal in Multan. However, the much-awaited clash between the arch-rivals India and Pakistan will be played on September 2 at the Pallekele International Cricket Stadium in Pallekele. 

India’s first match of the tournament will be against Pakistan

The Men in Blue will play their 2nd league stage match against Nepal at the same stadium on September 4. Pakistan will host only 1 match of the Super Fours while the rest of the remaining matches will be played in Sri Lanka only. The final match of the tournament will be played on September 17 at the R Premadasa Stadium in Colombo.

It is to be noted that India will play their all matches in Sri Lanka as they refused to travel to Pakistan due to political and security reasons. It was also the reason behind the hybrid format of the tournament as it was earlier supposed to be entirely hosted by Pakistan only. India will look to emerge victorious in the tournament to go with full confidence in the upcoming ODI World Cup.

India’s 18-man Asia Cup squad:

Rohit Sharma (captain), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul, Suryakumar Yadav, Tilak Varma, Ishan Kishan, Hardik Pandya (VC), Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Shardul Thakur, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj, Kuldeep Yadav, Prasidh Krishna, Sanju Samson (backup wicketkeeper).

Here’s how fans reacted: