No MS Dhoni in Harsha Bhogle's Asia Cup XI

Cricket expert Harsha Bhogle has picked his Asia Cup XI, but his team does not feature Indian wicketkeeper, MS Dhoni. As the tournament winds down with the final taking place on Friday, Bhogle has considered his options to select the best XI from this Asia Cup. According to Harsha Bhogle, this edition of the Asia Cup was ‘peculiar’ because of the close matches and the dominating performances from some of the lesser known teams.

Moreover, Sri Lanka’s shocking exit was also something nobody expected. However, the startling fact about Harsha’s XI is that it doesn’t feature MS Dhoni. The team comprises of six players from India, two each from Bangladesh and Afghanistan and one Pakistani all-rounder. Speaking about the peculiarity of this Asia Cup, Harsha Bhogle said, “If you pick five specialist batsmen, then four pick themselves.

You want five bowlers or four bowlers then three pick themselves. And there has been hardly any all-rounders in this tournament. Look at the start of the tournament where you were looking at bowling all-rounders like Faheem Ashraf and Shadab Khan and Thisara Perera. And none of them did anything worthy of being picked. And so you need to start looking around…”

The commentator’s openers are India’s star duo Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan – who have been in imperious form. Dhawan has already smashed two centuries while Rohit has three fifty-plus scores to his name. At no.3, Harsha Bhogle selected India’s Ambati Rayudu. “Every time he was put into a situation, he got runs, he finished off a couple of matches and so Rayudu is my No.3,” he said.

Why no MSD in Harsha’s side?

Harsha then opted for Bangladesh wicketkeeper-batsman Mushfiqur Rahim at No.4 and veteran Pakistan all-rounder Shoaib Malik at No.5, both of whom have made sizable contributions to their respective teams.

Speaking about dropping MS Dhoni from his side, Harsha said, “You’re at a historical team of all the players in this and the first name that goes into this is MS Dhoni. But in this tournament, he hasn’t had a lot to do simply because India’s batting has been so good,” he explained.

In the bowling department, the expert analyst has Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah and Rashid Khan. Harsha then named his two bowling all-rounders Mohammad Nabi and Ravindra Jadeja, The final spot in the eleven goes to Bangladesh paceman Mustafizur Rahman.

Harsha Bhogle’s XI for Asia Cup 2018

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

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