Asia Cup 2022: Rahul Dravid recovers from COVID-19, to take charge of Team India – Reports

Earlier this week, the former India batter Dravid had tested positive for Covid-19 with “mild symptoms” for the virus in a routine test conducted ahead of the team’s departure to the UAE for Asia Cup 2022.

Earlier, BCCI secretary Jay Shah released a statement where he stated that the Indian head coach had mild symptoms.

“Team India Head Coach Rahul Dravid has tested positive for COVID-19 in a routine test conducted ahead of the team’s departure to the UAE for Asia Cup 2022.

“Dravid is under the supervision of the BCCI Medical team and has mild symptoms. He will join the team once he returns with a negative COVID-19 report,” Shah had said in a release.

After Dravid tested positive for Covid, the Board of Control for Cricket in India on Wednesday (August 24) had named VVS Laxman as the interim head coach for Team India (Senior Men) for the important Asia Cup.

However, with Dravid reaching Dubai after testing negative for the virus and also joining the team in the hotel, Laxman has flown back home, according to further reports.

India will look to avenge the defeat from last year in the T20 World Cup 2021, where they suffered a humiliating defeat to Pakistan at the exact same venue in Dubai.

Team India, however, hold a huge advantage over their arch-rivals in T20Is with wins in seven out of nine matches, while Pakistan has won only two. In the 15 meetings in Asia Cup, India has won 8 and Pakistan 5 with 2 matches ending in No Result.

This will be their third meeting at Dubai International Cricket Stadium, where India beat Pakistan twice in the 2018 Asia Cup, but Pakistan won their one match against their rivals most recently at the venue.

The Squads for Asia Cup 2022

India: Rohit Sharma (captain), KL Rahul (vice-captain), Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Deepak Hooda, Rishabh Pant (wicketkeeper), Dinesh Karthik (wicketkeeper), Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, R. Ashwin, Yuzvendra Chahal, Ravi Bishnoi, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Arshdeep Singh, Avesh Khan. Stand-by: Deepak Chahar, Shreyas Iyer, Axar Patel.

Pakistan: Babar Azam (captain), Shadab Khan (vice-captain), Asif Ali, Fakhar Zaman, Haider Ali, Haris Rauf, Iftikhar Ahmed, Khushdil Shah, Mohammad Nawaz, Mohammad Rizwan (wicketkeeper), Mohammad Wasim Jr., Naseem Shah, Shahnawaz Dahani, Mohammad Hasnain, and Usman Qadir.