Asia Cup 2022: 3 Players who have been picked in the Indian squad on their big names rather than form

Indian team is all set to play start their campaign in the Asia Cup 2022 with the first match against the arch-rivals Pakistan on the 28^th of August later this month. Notably, the men in blue are the defending champions of the multi-team continental tournament. It’s quite interesting that last time when India won the Asia Cup last time in 2018, Rohit Sharma was the stand-in skipper of the team.

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Whereas, this time, he will be there in the role of full-time skipper during the Asia Cup 2022. Apart from this, there are a lot of senior players who will be a part of the team in the Asia Cup 2022. But things become quite strange when you hear that any player is picked for the team just because of his name instead of form.

So, here we’ll have a look at three players who have been picked in the squad for the Asia Cup on the basis of their reputation rather than their current form.

KL Rahul

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The senior batter was suffering from an injury since the conclusion of the 2022 edition of the Indian T20 League. He sustained the injury just before the commencement of the five-match T20I series against South Africa earlier this year in the month of June. Later on, KL Rahul went to Germany for an operation on his sports hernia.

Although, he recovered from the injury last month and was picked in the team for the limited-over series against the West Indies. But, the 30-year-old couldn’t play in that series too because he tested positive for the Covid-19 virus.

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While the selectors were picking the team for the Asia Cup 2022, KL Rahul didn’t have a match practice but they picked the veteran batter on the grounds of his reputation.

Ravichandran Ashwin

Ravichandran Ashwin (Image source- Twitter)

The legendary spinner will be there in the team India along with his fellow spin mates Yuzvendra Chahal, Ravi Bishnoi, and senior all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja. Notably, Ravichandran Ashwin was not in the T20I team for the last eight months. Although, he has played a vital role for the team India in the longest format of the game.

The 35-year-old was recently picked in the team for the recently-concluded five-match T20I series against West Indies. He is not a regular part of the team in limited-overs cricket.

All the experts and cricket fans went on to say that Ashwin was picked in the team for the Asia Cup 2022 for his legendary name.

Virat Kohli

Virat Kohli (Image source- Twitter)

Former skipper and senior batter Virat Kohli is enduring a poor run of form with the bat. He is still waiting for his 71^st international century since the last one he scored against the West Indies three years back in 2019. He has played only 4 T20 internationals in 2022 so far and scored only 81 runs with a very poor batting average of 20.25 runs.

Apart from this, he has played in 8 ODIs in the current calendar year, in these matches, he scored 175 runs with an average of 21.87. But the management opted to rest him for the three-match ODI series against Zimbabwe and recently-concluded white-ball tour of West Indies.

Although, the 33-year-old will also be a part of the Indian squad during the Asia Cup 2022.