Yuzvendra Chahal reacts after being snubbed from India's Asia Cup squad, shares cryptic post

On Monday (August 21), the BCCI selection committee, headed by former pacer Ajit Agarkar, announced Rohit Sharma-led India's 17-man squad for the forthcoming Asia Cup. The upcoming continental tournament is set to kick off on August 30, in Pakistan, whereas the Men in Blue will open their campaign versus arch-rivals Pakistan on September 2, in Pallekele as the competition will be jointly hosted by Sri Lanka and Pakistan.

Thesquad comprises star players, andsees the return of KL Rahul, Shreyas Iyer, Jasprit Bumrah and Prasidh Krishna in the 50-over setup with less than two months for the home ODI World Cup. However, the spin department does not feature the 33-year-old Yuzvendra Chahal.

Chahal hasn't been a regular in the ODI setup with Kuldeep Yadavdoing well, whereas the Indian team management cannot afford to play the two together as Rohit & Co. are focused on addingmore depth in theirbatting.

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After the Asia Cup snub, Chahal took to his official account on X, earlier known as Twitter, to react with a cryptic post.

CHAHAL REACTSPOST ASIA CUP SNUB

Speaking to the reporters after India's squadannouncement, Rohit opened up on Chahal's omission and has refused to rule out any player from India'sscheme of things with regard to the upcoming ODI World Cup, beginning at home on October 05. He said, "We had a deep discussion about an off-spinner. And about a leg-spinner as well. Where the thing actually boils down is, the batting option at No. 8 and No. 9."

Rohit further highlighted, "We want somebody who can bat at that spot. Axar being Axar, he had a good run this year, and batted well in white-ball cricket, especially. He did not get a lot of opportunities in red-ball but he batted well in white-ball cricket, especially in the IPL. In the West Indies tour, he couldn't get a lot of opportunities because he bats at the backend. With him being there, it allows us the option of first having a left-hander whom we can use up the order and go in to play the spinners. He can do that for us."

The 36-year-oldadded, "We thought about off-spinners as well, Ashwin and Washi as well but right now, Chahal has to miss out because we can only get 17 players there. The only way we could have done that (brought him in) is by taking one of the seamers out. We cannot really do that because seamers are going to play a big role in the next 2 months, considering the number of games in the next two months. Some of them are coming back after a long time. We wanted to get them in and see what they can do."

India squad for Asia Cup 2023

Rohit Sharma (C), Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul, Tilak Varma, Ishan Kishan, Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Shardul Thakur, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammad Siraj, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammad Shami, Prasidh Krishna

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