Asia Cup 2022 will start on 27th August in the UAE. For Team India, it will be an important event considering the next big event will be the 2022 T20 World Cup. Since the ICC trophy cabinet has gone barren in recent years, the Rohit Sharma-led squad will be raring to do well. In recent months, not all the T20I tournaments had the seniors in the XI. During these competitions, some other players did well for the nation. However, for the Asia Cup, India has picked an experienced squad, leaving out some of the juniors. A few of these left-out cricketers will be a part of the Zimbabwe ODI series. That said, it would have been helpful if they were picked for the Asia Cup. On that note, here, we take a look at two players who should have played in Asia Cup 2022 instead of the Zimbabwe ODI series.
1) Axar Patel
Axar Patel has done well in recent weeks in the absence of Ravindra Jadeja. There were concerns if he could turn up as an impactful batter. Axar did that in one of the ODI games against the West Indies. He even won the Player of the Match award in that game.
As a bowler, Axar has done better than Jadeja recently. Considering the UAE pitches offer good assistance to the spinner, a player like Axar would have been useful. Hence, he is a part of this list.
2) Ishan Kishan
Ishan Kishan is one of the players who should have played in Asia Cup 2022 instead of the Zimbabwe ODI series. The Jharkhand cricketer was India’s backup opener in the 2021 T20 World Cup. After that competition, he played many games for India as an opener. He actually did well in most of these encounters.
However, India has made use of Rishabh Pant and Suryakumar Yadav as an opener in recent competitions. KL Rahul is also returning to the squad for the Asia Cup. Hence, Ishan Kishan has been left out. That said, considering he is a left-hander who is a genuine option for the role, the management could have selected Ishan. His presence would have allowed the management to draw a clear line in terms of roles for the batters. The player would now look to do well against Zimbabwe to earn a comeback.
