Wicketkeeper-batter KL Rahul was on Tuesday ruled of the first two matches of the upcoming Asia Cup due to a “niggle”, delaying his much-anticipated return to the Indian team.Team India coach Rahul Dravid said at a press conference that KL Rahul is progressing well from the niggle he picked after recovering from his injury and will be under the National Cricket Academy (NCA) supervision till September 4.
“He (KL Rahul) had a good week with us, he is progressing really well on the route that we want to take, but he will be unavailable for the first part of the Kandy leg of the trip. The NCA will be looking after him while we are travelling. We will reassess him on fourth (September 4) and we will take it from there. The signs are good and he is progressing really well,” Dravid said. The coach added that Rahul will be staying back at the NCA and a call on his participation in the tournament will be take on September 4. Team India is preparing for the Asia Cup 2023 in the training camp organised at Alur on the outskirts of Bengaluru in Karnataka. The Asia Cup will begin on August 30 and Pakistan will take on Nepal in Multan in the first match. India will play their opening match against Pakistan on September 2 at the Pallekele International Cricket Stadium in Kandy.
Pakistan, India and Nepal are in Group A while Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Sri Lanka are in Group B. The tournament will follow a hybrid model with Pakistan hosting four matches across two venues and Sri Lanka hosting the remaining games. The six group-stage matches will be followed by the Super Fours beginning September 6. The final will be played by the top two teams at the end of the Super Fours on September 17 in Colomb Indian Squad: Rohit Sharma (captain), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul, Suryakumar Yadav, Tilak Varma, Ishan Kishan, Hardik Pandya (vice-captain), Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Shardul Thakur, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammad Shami, Mohammed Siraj, Kuldeep Yadav, Prasidh Krishna.
