“In These Tournaments, You Need To…”: Former Captain On India’s Experimentations In Asia Cup

In an effort to find their strongest playing XI for the upcoming T20 World Cup, Team India has tried different compositions during the ongoing Asia Cup. Until now, the Indian team management has tried several players, which has not really helped their case. After securing safe passage from the group stage, India failed to qualify for the final after beating Pakistan and Sri Lanka in the Super 4 stage. Speaking of India’s chop-and-change policy, former India selector Dilip Vengsarkar believes that multi-team events like the Asia Cup are no grounds for experimentation.

“The team continues their experiments. They chose Dinesh Karthik, but they didn’t play him, and then they played Ravichandran Ashwin for the first time against Sri Lanka yesterday (Tuesday). It is clear that the team management wants to give everything to the players an opportunity because they are trying to find their best team for next month’s World Cup, but then this event is also very important. The Asia Cup is a very big tournament,” Vengsarkar told Khaleej Times.

“Winning matches in a tournament like this is very important for the morale of the team. I also think it is important to have the winning combination. As I said, the Asian Cup is a very big event. You can maybe experimenting in a bilateral series, but the Asia Cup and the World Cup, these are big tournaments. In these tournaments you have to win, that’s very important,” he added.

India will face Pakistan in their opening match of the T20 World Cup on October 23 at the iconic Melbourne Cricket Ground.

promoted

Before that, India will play three T20Is at home against Australia and South Africa.

India and South Africa will also play three ODIs after the T20Is.