Ruturaj Gaikwad, Harmanpreet Kaur to lead as BCCI announces India men’s and women’s squads for 19th Asian Games

Rinku, whose exclusion from the T20s series in the Caribbean was questioned, made the cut while Dube, Jaiswal, Varma and Prabhsimran Singh are the others who have been picked at the back of a stellar IPL. It was a coming of age season for Dube who helped CSK win a record equalling fifth title.

Jaiswal scored a hundred on his Test debut against the West Indies on Thursday before going on to become only the third Indian to score 150 in his first game for India.

NEWS 🚨- Team India (Senior Men) squad for 19th Asian Games: Ruturaj Gaikwad (Captain), 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…

— BCCI (@BCCI) July 14, 2023

Tilak has also been named in the team which will face the West Indies in a five-match series from August 3.

Gaikwad, who will lead the side in China, is currently with the Test squad in the Caribbean. Wicketkeeper batter Jitesh Sharma and left-arm pacer Arshdeep Singh are also part of the squad.

Meanwhile, the women’s team will be led by captain Harmanpreet Kaur with Smriti Mandhana as her deputy. Harleen Deol, Kashvee Gautam, Sneh Rana, Saika Ishaque and Pooja Vastrakar are in the standby list.

Young pacer Titas Sadhu who had impressed in India’s title-winning campaign at the inaugural U-19 Women’s World Cup in South Africa was added to the squad. The 18-year-old is not part of the Indian squad currently in Bangladesh.

Rookier spinners Minnu Mani and Anusha Bareddy, who are in Bangladesh, have been included. Wicketkeeper Richa Ghosh, who was dropped from Bangladesh tour on fitness grounds, is also back.

Cricket was part of two editions of the Asiad, in 2010 and 2014, but India did not field a team. After being left out of the 2018 Asiad in Jakarta, cricket has returned to the programme for the Hangzhou Games, which were supposed to be held last year but were postponed due to China’s zero-Covid policy.

TEAM – 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 https://t.co/kJs9TQKZfw

— BCCI Women (@BCCIWomen) July 14, 2023

In June, the Indian Express had reported that the BCCI will field their men’s and women’s teams at the Asian Games.

The men’s team will be a B squad because the main team will be in the midst of the 50-over World Cup to be played at home.

Earlier, the Indian board had cited prior commitments as the reason for not entering the men’s and women’s teams for the continental mega event. “We have entries in all sports except one – cricket (team) isn’t going,” India’s chef de mission for the Asian Games, Bhupender Bajwa had told The Indian Express earlier. “They said they are preoccupied. We sent around 3-4 emails to them but when we had to send entries to the organisers, they said they won’t go.”

Standby list of players: Harleen Deol, Kashvee Gautam, Sneh Rana, Saika Ishaque, Pooja Vastrakar https://t.co/s8Xsjkwgkc

— BCCI Women (@BCCIWomen) July 14, 2023

This is not the first time the BCCI will be fielding two national teams. In 1998, one Indian team competed at the Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur while another faced Pakistan in the Sahara Cup. More recently, in 2021, Shikhar Dhawan led a second-string Indian team for a series in Sri Lanka whereas another team, captained by Virat Kohli, was in the UK ahead of a Test series against England.

Meanwhile, India has already sent squads for big sports such as shooting, boxing, archery and badminton have already been announced by the respective national sports federations (NSFs).

India men’s team: Ruturaj Gaikwad (Captain), 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

India women’s team: 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