While KL Rahul and Shreyas Iyer, both middle-order batters rehabilitating from a thigh and a back injury respectively at the National Cricket Academy, have been declared fit for the Asia Cup, Jasprit Bumrah is returning to ODI cricket after a gap of more than a year having proved his fitness in the ongoing T20I series against Ireland. Tilak Varma and Prasidh Krishna also found a place in the squad, with Sanju Samson as the back-up player.

“Shreyas Iyer is completely fit, KL Rahul is having a niggle, That is why Sanju is travelling. We expect him to be fit, he is well on track. If not at the start of Asia Cup, may be by the second or the third game,” chief selector Ajit Agarkar said after the selection committee meeting in Delhi.

On Yuzvendra Chahal, who is missing from squad, Agarkar said: “You can’t fit in two wrist spinners and at the moment Kuldeep Yadav is ahead of him.”

Squad: Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul, Suryakumar Yadav, Tilak Varma, Ishan Kishan, Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Shardul Thakur, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj, Kuldeep Yadav, Prasidh Krishna, and Sanju Samson (back up).

The first match in the Asia Cup will be played between Pakistan and Nepal in Multan. India will play all their matches in Sri Lanka, beginning with the game against arch-rivals Pakistan on September 2 in Kandy. While a total of 13 matches will be played, the final is scheduled for September 17 in Colombo.

As per reports, Hyderabad Police raised a concern over security with the revised World Cup schedule leaving Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium to host back-to-back matches. The venue will host New Zealand-Netherlands tie on October 9. It will be followed by the match between Pakistan and Sri Lanka on the very next day. The Hyderabad Cricket Association (HCA) has sent an official request to the BCCI to increase the gap between the two matches.

The development happened just over a week since ICC announced major changes to the schedule of the mega event, making as many as nine changes, including that of the blockbuster tie between hosts India and Pakistan.

HCA has informed that back-to-back World Cup matches will lead to inadequate security for the Pakistan game.

However, it is yet to be seen whether BCCI will respond to the request having recently made nine changes to the original World Cup owing to security issues in Ahmedabad and Kolkata.