The current cricketing landscape is being dominated by the Asia Cup, which is just around the corner, and the World Cup which is fast approaching in just over a month's time.
But as far as Team India is concerned, there is another tournament to contend with, i.e. the 2023 Asian Games. Cricket has only been part of the Asian Games in 2010 and 2014, and the Indian team has not participated in either edition.
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This year, however, both the Indian men's and women's teams will be participating in the Asian Games. But for the men, as the Asian Games overlap with the ODI World Cup, a second-string squad of players has been chosen.
As the regular Team India coaching staff will also not be available, the BCCI has had to pick alternates which were confirmed today.
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Who is India's head coach for the Asian Games?
As reported by the Times of India, former India batter VVS Laxman is set to take charge of the team at the Asian Games. Laxman had earlier been in line to lead India during the tour of Ireland but due to a scheduling conflict with a high-perfromance training camp in Bengaluru, was replaced by Sitanshu Kotak.
Ex-India all-rounder Hrishikesh Kanitkar has been picked to lead the women's side in an interim capacity, as the BCCI ponders a full-time replacement.
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Laxman's support staff will consist of Sairaj Bahutule and Munish Bali as the bowling and fielding coaches, while Rajib Dutta and Subadeep Ghosh will perform those roles for the women's team.
What is India's squad for the Asian Games?
The full squads are as follows.
Men's squad: Ruturaj Gaikwad (c), 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 players: Yash Thakur, Sai Kishore, Venkatesh Iyer, Deepak Hooda, Sai Sudarsan
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Women's squad: 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 players: Harleen Deol, Kashvee Gautam, Sneh Rana, Saika Ishaque, Pooja Vastrakar
