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The Asia Cup begins on Saturday with top cricketers including India superstar Virat Kohli and Pakistan skipper Babar Azam in action in the United Arab Emirates. Here are five players to watch in the six-nation tournament, which is an important warm-up for the T20 World Cup in Australia in October.
Shubman Gill earned a recall to the Indian ODI side this year, and has taken his opportunities with both hands, winning the Player of the Series award against both West Indies and Zimbabwe. In the six matches he has played against the Windies and Zimbabwe, Gill scored three half-centuries and a century. He could have had another ton as well, but rain played spoilsport and left him stranded on 98 in the 3rd ODI against West Indies. Former New Zealand all-rounder Scott Styris said the 22-year-old has "a huge future in front of him" and that he is putting pressure on veteran opener Shikhar Dhawan, with the World Cup set to be played in India next year.
All eyes would be on Virat Kohli when India start their Asia Cup campaign against Pakistan on August 28. In recent times, the former India captain has time and again failed to come close to the consistency that he once exuded. While he has failed to score a ton since November, 2019, Kohli's recent form has been far from satisfactory. He failed to score big on the Tour of England in all three formats. He was rested for the Tour of West Indies as well as Zimbabwe and will be making a comeback in the Asia Cup.
Long-serving manager Neil Cugley reckons Folkestone’s squad this season is the strongest he has had in some time.
Former India pacer Lakshmipathy Balaji feels Deepak Chahar should've played for the team in the Asia Cup, especially considering that star fast bowlers Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Shami will miss the tournament. While Bumrah was ruled out of the tournament due to an injury, the Indian selectors decided not to pick Shami. Meanwhile, Chahar, who made a return to the side after a long injury lay-off during the three-match ODI series against Zimbabwe, has been named as a reserve player for the Asia Cup.
Gujarat opener Priyank Panchal was on Wednesday named captain of the 16-member India 'A' squad for the three four-day games against New Zealand 'A', starting later this month. Apart from Panchal, the squad also includes the likes of Ruturaj Gaikwad, Kuldeep Yadav, and Prasidh Krishna. Pace sensation Umran Malik, 22, has also been named in the squad. The selectors also took into consideration performances of those players who fared well in the domestic season and named the likes of Bengal's star batter Abhimanyu Easwaran, Madhya Pradesh's Ranji Trophy winning hero Rajat Patidar, and Mumbai's Sarfaraz Khan.
Hong Kong qualified for the Asia Cup on Wednesday, where they will face India and Pakistan, after defeating the United Arab Emirates by eight wickets in the final qualifying round. Chasing 148 to win, Hong Kong reached their target with an over to spare with Yasim Murtaza top scoring on 58. The 31-year-old Murtaza made his runs off 43 balls and hit seven boundaries and one six.
PriceWaterHouseCoopers (PWC) stepped down as auditors for the ongoing media rights sale of the International Cricket Council (ICC), prospective bidders wrote to the game's governing body, asking the latter to explain the accounting firm's exit, and have also pressed for the rights to now be sold by way of an e-auction. The broadcasters have raised serious concerns over the overall mechanism once again and urged the ICC to opt for e-auction as the "only process" to sell the rights. BCCI secretary Jay Shah too has time and again asked the ICC to adopt e-auction as the process to sell rights. In fact, Shah - who successfully oversaw the sale of Indian Premier League (IPL) media rights in June this year - has specifically said that for sports federations that dispose of the functions of a public body, profits should be as important as transparency. "Which is the reason the BCCI made sure that the IPL rights would be sold in a manner that no questions would be raised about the process. Ask a broadcaster and they'll tell you how the IPL was sold at optimum value. But even if it wasn't sold at optimum value, there's no way you're going to debate the processes that were in place," say those tracking the 'rights' industry.