One week after England tour gets over, the Indian team will fly across to the United Arab Emirates to take part in the Asia Cup. The selectors announced the squad and captain Virat Kohli will not take part in the event. Rohit Sharma will step in as the leader of the squad as India look to defend their title.
Former Australian fast bowler Brett Lee has, however, said that the Indian team will still be a formidable batting unit. He named Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan as the two main players for the team and has said that India's title defence rests on the form and performance of the two openers, more so in the absence of Virat Kohli.
"Two key batsmen for India in the Asia Cup — Shikhar Dhawan and secondly Rohit Sharma. I believe Rohit will get the best out of himself and also the team because he has been given that extra bit of responsibility to lead the Indian side," Lee said in a statement issued by the official broadcasters of the Asia Cup, Star Sports.
'Rohit will be targeted with the left-arm angle'
Speaking about the conditions, Lee said that although there have been a lot of talks of Rohit being susceptible to left-arm swing bowling, the conditions in UAE which will be on the slower side, will ensure he scores big runs. However, he did add that the other teams would surely target the stand-in captain with the left-arm angle.
Lee said that Shikhar Dhawan also needs to make minor tweaks to his technique as he has been playing on the true surfaces in England. On the low, sluggish surfaces in the UAE, Shikhar has to make minor adjustments as his game is well suited to these conditions and can play through the line of the ball.
"He has played on grounds all around India that are low and slow in recent years, and the tracks in UAE will suit him, allowing him to play through the line of the ball," Lee said.
India squad for the Asia Cup:
SQUAD: Rohit Sharma(C), Shikhar Dhawan (VC), KL Rahul, AT Rayudu, Manish Pandey, Kedar Jadhav, MS Dhoni, Dinesh Kartik, Kuldeep Yadav, Hardik Pandya, Y Chahal, Axar Patel, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah, Shardul Thakur and Khaleel Ahmed
