The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has made one change each to their men’s and women’s cricket teams for the upcoming Asian Games 2023. Bengal’s Akash Deep replaces youngster Shivam Mavi who is ruled out of the tournament due to a back injury. In the women’s team, star all-rounder Pooja Vastrakar replaces left-arm pacer Anjali Sarvani for the 19th edition of the tournament in China’s Hangzhou.
The BCCI is sending cricket teams for the first time in the Asian Games starting on September 19. Star opener Ruturaj Gaikwad is leading the second-string men’s team but has quality options available to bid for the gold medal. Both Tilak Varma and Washington Sundar also keep their place in the team despite their involvement in the Asia Cup 2023 but in-form youngster Sai Sudarsan remains on the standby list.
Pooja Vastrakar, a bowling all-rounder, was surprisingly named in the standbys but an injury to Sarwani made a place for her in the main team. India have named a senior women’s team for the tournament with Harmanpreet Kaur and Smriti Mandhana leading the 15-member squad. Both men’s and women’s teams will directly feature in the quarterfinal round due to their current standing in the ICC T20I rankings.
India men’s squad for the Asian Games 2023: 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), Akash Deep.
Standby list of players: Yash Thakur, Sai Kishore, Venkatesh Iyer, Deepak Hooda, Sai Sudarsan.
India Women’s squad for the Asian Games 2023: Harmanpreet Kaur (c), Smriti Mandhana (vc), Shafali Verma, Jemimah Rodrigues, Deepti Sharma, Richa Ghosh (wk), Amanjot Kaur, Devika Vaidya, Titas Sadhu, Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Minnu Mani, Kanika Ahuja, Uma Chetry (wk), Anusha Bareddy, Pooja Vastrakar.
Standby list of players: Harleen Deol, Kashvee Gautam, Sneh Rana, Saika Ishaque.