Asian Games: Umran Malik to replace injured Shivam Mavi in India squad, says report

Shivam Mavi is set to be replaced in India’s squad for the Asia Games in Hangzhou, China, due to an injury, it was reported on Wednesday. Mavi had suffered the injury a few days ago but the nature of the injury has not been made public yet.

The pacer would be replaced by Umran Malik, an Indian Express report said. The BCCI selection committee headed by Ajit Agarkar wanted to pick Yash Thakur as a replacement for Mavi but the Vidarbha pacer has also injured his back.

Ruturaj Gaikwad will be captaining India at the Asian Games and due to the 50-over World Cup at home, the BCCI did not name the first-choice players for the continental event.

Cricket is making a return to the Asian Games after a gap of nine years. The sport was part of the Asian Games in 2010 and 2014 editions but India did not take part in them. It was dropped from the 2018 Asiad but now makes a return in the China edition.

Apart from the men’s team, the senior women’s team with its first-choice players will also be taking part in the Asiad.

Former Indian all-rounder Hrishikesh Kanitkar will coach the women’s team while Rajib Dutta and Subhadeep Ghosh will be the bowling and fielding coaches respectively.

National Cricket Academy (NCA) head VVS Laxman will coach the men’s team at Asiad. Sairaj Bahutule and Munish Bali will be the bowling and fielding coaches respectively.

The teams are expected to train at NCA before leaving for Hangzhou.

Indian men’s team plays their first game in the Asian Games on 3 October while the women’s team starts their campaign on 21 September.

India Men squad for 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 Dube, Prabhsimran Singh (wk)

Standby list of players: Yash Thakur, Sai Kishore, Venkatesh Iyer, Deepak Hooda, Sai Sudarsan.

India Women squad for Asian Games: 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