A right knee injury has lead Ravindra Jadeja ruled out of Asia Cup campaign. Axar Patel, who was initially named as a stand-by player, replaces him in the team India squad.
Ravindra Jadeja has been troubled by his right knee earlier too. An injury to the same joint had forced him to miss the ODI league of India’s tour of the West Indies in July.
India will hope Jadeja can recover quickly, with the men’s T20 World Cup in Australia less than two months away.
With the last performance in India vs Pakistan Asia cup, played on 28th August, 2022, he bowled two economical overs before come to batting at No. 4 in India’s chase of 148, As the only left-hand batter in India’s top seven. He steered India towards victory with a 29-ball 35, and ensured that Pakistan held back left-arm spinner Mohammad Nawaz’s fourth over until the final over of the match. Against Hong Kong, he dismissed top-scorer Babar Hayat and only gave away 15 runs in his four overs.
Axar Patel is a similar player to Jadeja, batting left-handed and bowling economical left-arm spin. But given the importance of Jadeja’s role, how well Axar slots into it could be key to India’s progress through the Super 4s stage of the Asia Cup and beyond.
India’s Next match in Asia Cup 2022
India and Pakistan will be squaring off next against each other in the Super4 stage of Asia Cup 2022 at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium on September 04.
India’s new updated playing XI squad
India Playing XI: Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel (Replacing Ravindra Jadeja), Dinesh Karthik, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Arshdeep Singh, Avesh Khan, Yuzvendra Chahal.
Pakistan Playing XI: Babar Azam, Mohammad Rizwan, Fakhar Zaman, Khushdil Shah, Iftikhar Ahmed, Asif Ali, Shadab Khan, Mohammad Nawaz, Haris Rauf, Naseem Shah, Shahnawaz Dahani.
