Gaikwad, Harmanpreet to lead India in Asian Games

The BCCI on Friday (July 14) have announced the India Men and Women’s squad for the 19th Asian Games in Hangzhou, China. Ruturaj Gaikwad will lead India’s Men’s team, given the unavailability of all the star players due to international commitments. The Women’s team, however, will be led by the regular skipper Harmanpreet Kaur. 

The IPL stars who are yet to make it big at the international level, like Gaikwad himself, Rahul Tripathi, Tilak Varma, Rinku Singh are selected in the squad. Jitesh Sharma and Prabhsimran Singh are named as the two glovesmen. 

Avesh Khan, Arshdeep Singh, Mukesh Kumar and Shivam Mavi frame the pace attack with Washington Sundar, Shahbaz Ahmed and Ravi Bishnoi picked as spinners. India have also announced five back-up players who can be integrated into the main squad in case of any injuries.

The men’s cricket competition will take place from 28th September to 8th October in a T20 format.

Men’s Squad: Ruturaj Gaikwad ( c ), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Rahul Tripathi, Tilak Varma, Rinku Singh, Jitesh Sharma (wk), Washington Sundar, Shahbaz Ahmed, Ravi Bishnoi, Avesh Khan, Arshdeep Singh, Mukesh Kumar, Shivam Mavi, Shivam Dube, Prabhsimran Singh (wk)

Standby list of players: Yash Thakur, Sai Kishore, Venkatesh Iyer, Deepak Hooda, Sai Sudarsan

The women’s cricket competition will be held from September 19 to September 29th, 2023. All matches will be played at Zhejiang University of Technology Pingfeng Cricket Field in the T20 format.

The squad consists of most of India’s star women players including Harmanpreet Kaur, Smriti Mandhana, Shafali Verma, Jemimah Rodrigues. From the recently concluded Women's T20I series in Bangladesh that India won 2-1, Harleen Deol has been demoted to the list of standby players. Meanwhile, Sabbhineni Meghana and Meghna Singh have been dropped. Kanika Ahuja and Richa Ghosh are among notable additions.  

Women’s Squad: Harmanpreet Kaur ( c ), Smriti Mandhana (VC), Shafali Verma, Jemimah Rodrigues, Deepti Sharma, Richa Ghosh (wk), Amanjot Kaur, Devika Vaidya, Anjali Sarvani, Titas Sadhu, Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Minnu Mani, Kanika Ahuja, Uma Chetry (wk), Anusha Bareddy

Standby list of players: Harleen Deol, Kashvee Gautam, Sneh Rana, Saika Ishaque, Pooja Vastrakar

All the cricket games at the event will take place at Zhejiang University of Technology Pingfeng Cricket Field. 

Cricket was a part of the Asian Games in 2010 and 2014. India didn't take part in both events. The last time India sent a team for a multi-sport event was the Commonwealth Games in 1998. Only the Men's team was sent. Then also, India featured a second-string side. Led by Ajay Jadeja with the likes of Anil Kumble and VVS Laxman in the squad, India finished ninth in a competition of 16 teams.