Star Indian batter Virat Kohli has started practising for the upcoming Asia Cup 2022. India named a 15-member squad for the Asia Cup earlier this week. Virat Kohli was among the players who made a return to the national side. The tournament will start from August 27 onwards, with India starting its campaign with a high-octane clash against Pakistan on August 28. Virat took to Instagram and shared a video of him running between wickets.
Cant keep Clam #ViratKohli Back in the nets #INDvsPAK pic.twitter.com/Ekpmu5Va6W
— Akash Kharade (@cricaakash) August 11, 2022
“Running into practice week,” said the star batter’s Instagram story.
This upcoming Asia Cup will be Virat’s best chance to regain his touch and possibly register his much-awaited 71st century in international cricket. The star batter has struggled for form this year and this struggle has been a matter of debate among fans and the cricketing fraternity.
Kohli has made four T20I appearances this year in which he has scored just 81 runs at an average of 20.25 with one half-century. He was among big players who sat out during India’s tour of West Indies. He also had struggles in this edition of IPL, as he could score only 341 runs in 16 innings at an average of 22.73 and scored only two fifties for Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB).
King Kohli is Back pic.twitter.com/4LVY09JCur
— Akash Kharade (@cricaakash) August 11, 2022
His form has not been that great in Tests and ODIs as well. In four Test matches this year, Kohli has scored 220 runs in seven innings at an average of 31.42. His best individual score is 79. He has scored only one half-century in Tests this year. While in ODIs, he has scored 175 runs in eight innings at a sub-par average of 21.87. His best individual score in the format this year is 65 and two half-centuries have come off his bat.
Stop scrolling and like this picture #ViratKohli pic.twitter.com/VeNA0WM4Aa
— Anurag (@viratians25) August 11, 2022
Coming to the Asia Cup, the 15th edition of the tournament will be played in the UAE between six teams (main event). Defending champions India are also the most successful team, having won the trophy seven times. While the last edition of the tournament was held in an ODI format, this edition will feature the T20 format. The six teams are divided into two groups with India, Pakistan and a qualifying team in Group A; and Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Afghanistan forming Group B. Each team plays the other once in the group stage with the top two teams from each group advancing to the Super 4 round. The top 2 teams from Super 4 will qualify for the final.
India squad for Asia Cup: Rohit Sharma (c), KL Rahul, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant, Deepak Hooda, Dinesh Karthik, Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, R Ashwin, Yuzvendra Chahal, Ravi Bishnoi, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Arshdeep Singh, Avesh Khan.
Standbys: Shreyas Iyer, Axar Patel, Deepak Chahar.
