Dhoni and Kuldeep miss out in Harsha Bhogle’s Asia Cup XI

Harsha reveals why Mushfiqur Rahim instead of Dhoni

Famous cricket commentator and analyst Harsha Bhogle has picked his Asia Cup XI team ahead of the finals and although the team includes players from all teams it doesn’t have some big names such as MS Dhoni and Kuldeep Yadav.

Bhogle spoke about his Asia Cup XI on an online cricket portal. He said if you pick five specialist batsmen, then four pick themselves and if you want five bowlers or four bowlers then three pick themselves.

He also noted that there has been hardly any all-rounders in this tournament. He reminded everyone about the start of the tournament where everyone were looking at bowling all-rounders like Faheem Ashraf and Shadab Khan and Thisara Perera. But according to the cricket analyst, none of them did anything worthy of being picked.

Bhogle also cited the reasons for omitting MS Dhoni from the team. He explained that in this tournament, he hasn’t had a lot to do simply because India’s batting has been so good. But he also said that You’re at a historical team of all the players in this and the first name that goes into this is MS Dhoni.

A strong batting line-up

Undoubtedly Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan make up Bhogle’s top-order along with Ambati Rayudu at number three. He then has Mushfiqur Rahim at No.4 and Shoaib Malik at No.5. Speaking about Rayudu, Bhogle stated that every time he was put into a situation, he got runs, he finished off a couple of matches.

Also read: Asia Cup finals: Three key players battles to watch out for

Two all-rounders, versatile bowlers

Like the batting department, the bowling unit is filled with match-winners well. Harsha has Mohammad Nabi and Ravindra Jadeja as the all-rounders and Rashid Khan as the primary spin weapon. Interestingly, Kuldeep Yadav doesn’t find a place in this team.

The pace department is versatile and has Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Jasprit Bumrah from India and Mustafizur Rahman as the left-arm pacer.

Harsha’s Asia cup XI

Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma, Ambati Rayudu, Mushfiqur Rahim, Shoaib Malik, Mohammad Nabi, Ravindra Jadeja, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah, Rashid Khan, Mustafizur Rahman.