While teen sensation Vaibhav Sooryavanshi has been added to the 30-person longlist of men’s probables that the BCCI submitted to the Indian Olympic Association for the Asian Games in Aichi-Nagoya from September 19 to October 4, two notable names are missing: India’s current T20 captain Suryakumar Yadav and Test and ODI captain Shubman Gill.
Due to the fact that India’s home white-ball series against the West Indies partially coincides with the quadrennial extravaganza, it has been decided that the BCCI would have to choose two different T20 squads.
Between September 27 and October 17, there will be eight white-ball matches in the West Indies series: three ODIs and five T20Is. Gill has not been selected for the Asian Games since he is anticipated to captain the squad in ODIs.
The men’s cricket competition at the Asian Games will take place from September 24 to October 3, therefore the selectors will need to establish a larger pool in order to choose two teams, even though certain players are common in both ODIs and T20Is.
In terms of the 2028 Olympic Games and the upcoming T20 World Cup, it is acknowledged that Suryakumar is no longer relevant, and it is obvious that his name is not on the longlist for the Asian Games.
Shreyas Iyer, Sanju Samson, and Tilak Varma are the candidates for captaincy on that list for the Asian Games.
Jasprit Bumrah’s name is on the list of bowlers, however considering the 2027 World Cup, ODIs might be his first priority at that time.
Along with Prasidh Krishna and Arshdeep Singh, Harshit Rana has been placed on the long list and is anticipated to be fit by then.
Only two of the four front-line slow bowlers—Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Harsh Dubey, and Kuldeep Yadav—are anticipated to be selected. The Windies series will be played by the other two.
Remarkably, Ruturaj Gaikwad, the gold medal-winning captain from the Hangzhou edition, is the only notable non-performer to make the list.
BCCI’s 30-man list sent to IOA:
Yashasvi Jaiswal, Abhishek Sharma, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, Ishan Kishan, Sanju Samson, Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant, Hardik Pandya, Rinku Singh, Tilak Varma, Jasprit Bumrah, Axar Patel, Arshdeep Singh, Kuldeep Yadav, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Prasidh Krishna, Varun Chakravarthy, Anukul Roy, Ayush Badoni, , Harsh Dubey, Dhruv Jurel, Khaleel Ahmed, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Ravi Bishnoi, Shahbaz Ahmed, Shivam Dube, Vipraj Nigam, Harshit Rana, Yash Thakur, Washington Sundar
