After the culmination of England tour, Indian cricket team will participate in the 14th edition of Asia Cup, scheduled to be held in UAE from September 15. Since the England tour will finish on September 11, it will be exhausting for the active Indian players to arrive in UAE just two days later. Therefore, the BCCI has decided to send the Asia Cup squad in two batches.

As per a report in Mumbai Mirror, the cricket board has advanced the travel schedule of the 10 players, who are not currently playing in England. While the likes of Rohit Sharma, MS Dhoni, Ambati Rayudu, Manish Pandey, Kedar Jadhav, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Akshar Patel, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Khaleel Ahmed will depart for Dubai on September 13, the remaining six players – Shikhar Dhawan, KL Rahul, Hardik Pandya, Dinesh Karthik Jasprit Bumrah and Shardul Thakur – will leave on September 16.

It is worth mentioning here that Rohit Sharma will lead India in the forthcoming Asia Cup in the absence of regular skipper, Virat Kohli. Considering the draining England tour, the BCCI had rested Kohli from the high-octane tournament.

The 2018 Asia Cup will see six teams being divided into two groups. While India, Pakistan and Hong Kong are slotted in Group A, the Group B comprised of Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.

India squad for Asia Cup 2018:

Rohit Sharma (C), Shikhar Dhawan (VC), KL Rahul, Ambati Rayudu, Manish Pandey, Kedar Jadhav, MS Dhoni, Dinesh Karthik, Hardik Pandya, Kuldeep Yadav, Y Chahal, Axar Patel, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah, Shardul Thakur, Khaleel Ahmed