Indian cricket board finalizes its men's and women's squads for Asian Games 2023

India announced its updated men’s and women’s squads for the Asian Games 2023. Both the men’s and women’s squads have made changes as opposed to their initial squads. For the men’s side, Akash Deep comes in as a replacement for Shivam Mavi. On the other hand, Pooja Vastrakar comes in as a replacement for Anjali Sarvani in the women’s squad. The statement of Indian Cricket announced the changes. 

Shivam Mavi had a back injury and was ruled out of the 2023 Asian Games. Hence Akash Deep was announced as his replacement for the Games in Hangzhou. Anjali Sarvani had a knee injury and was ruled out of the Asian Games 2023. It led to Vastrakar coming into the squad. Barring these changes, there are no other changes in the squads of the Indian cricket teams. Men’s cricket will take place from September 28th to October 8th. Women’s cricket will take place from September 19th to 28th.  

Good options as replacements for the Indian team

Akash Deep has been in the squad of the Royal Challengers Bangalore from 2022. The right-arm medium pacer is someone who can bowl medium pace and can bat a bit lower down the order. The 26-year-old has 6 wickets in 7 matches for RCB in the IPL. Vastrakar has played a lot of cricket for the Indian team and is known for her hitting abilities down the order.  

The updated Indian squad has the likes of Ruturaj Gaikwad (Captain), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Rahul Tripathi, Tilak Varma, Rinku Singh, Jitesh Sharma, Washington Sundar, Shahbaz Ahmed, Ravi Bishnoi, Avesh Khan, Arshdeep Singh, Mukesh Kumar, Shivam Mavi, Shivam Dube, Prabhsimran Singh, Akash Deep. Yash Thakur, Sai Kishore, Venkatesh Iyer, Deepak Hooda, and Sai Sudarsan are announced as standby players. 

The updated Indian squad has the likes of Harmanpreet Kaur (Captain), Smriti Mandhana (VC), Shafali Verma, Jemimah Rodrigues, Deepti Sharma, Richa Ghosh, Amanjot Kaur, Devika Vaidya, Titas Sadhu, Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Minnu Mani, Kanika Ahuja, Uma Chetry, Anusha Bareddy, Pooja Vastrakar. The standby players are Harleen Deol, Kashvee Gautam, Sneh Rana, Saika Ishaque