3 players who were unlucky to miss out on India's squad for the Asia Cup 2023

Team India's preparations for the 2023 World Cup have hit their last leg, with the selection panel announcing a 17-man squad for the upcoming Asia Cup 2023.

Captain Rohit Sharma and chief selector Ajit Agarkar addressed the media following the announcement and cleared the air regarding their decisions. It's clear that the World Cup squad will be picked from the selected contingent, which was largely along expected lines.

India's squad for Asia Cup: Rohit Sharma (captain), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul (wk), Hardik Pandya (vice-captain), Ravindra Jadeja, Jasprit Bumrah, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Siraj, Mohammad Shami, Ishan Kishan (wk), Shardul Thakur, Axar Patel, Suryakumar Yadav, Tilak Varma, Prasidh Krishna.

At the same time, however, some names who have been part of the side's plans over the last couple of years - and even in the recent past - couldn't find a place.

Here are three players who were unlucky to miss out on India's squad for the Asia Cup 2023.

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#3 Washington Sundar

New Zealand v India - 3rd ODI

Washington Sundar only had an outside chance of being named in the Indian squad for the Asia Cup. The all-rounder has been picked to represent the national side in the 2023 Asian Games and hasn't been part of the ODI squad over the last few series.

However, with India picking only one specialist wrist-spinner in the squad for the Asia Cup, Sundar could've fancied his chances of making the grade. Ravindra Jadeja and Axar Patel are the only two premier finger-spinning all-rounders in the mix, and neither of them is particularly skilled at bowling to left-handers.

It's rather strange that India don't have an off-spinning all-rounder in their Asia Cup squad, and Sundar, whose ODI returns have been decent over the last year or so, might be disappointed.

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#2 Yuzvendra Chahal

Yuzvendra Chahal's white-ball form has been disappointing for a few years now

Yuzvendra Chahal has been a staple of the Indian white-ball setup for quite some time now. However, the leg-spinner has been overlooked for the Asia Cup following a string of unimpressive displays in limited-overs cricket over a few years.

In 16 matches since the start of 2022, Chahal has picked up 24 wickets at an economy rate under six. He has been consigned to a bit-part role this year, having played only two matches, with Kuldeep Yadav establishing himself as the frontline wrist-spinner for the Men in Blue.

There isn't much of a chance of Kuldeep and Chahal playing in tandem as they did at certain stages of the previous World Cup, and that might be the reason why the selectors opted to remove the backup leggie from their plans.

With Chahal being far from his best in general, it's hard to fault the call from the team's perspective. The player, though, could make a case for himself that he hasn't played enough ODI cricket in 2023 to warrant being dropped.

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#1 Sanju Samson

Sanju Samson's recent ODI numbers have been quite impressive

Unlike the other two players on this list, Sanju Samson could still have a role to play at the Asia Cup and perhaps even the World Cup. KL Rahul has been dealing with a fresh niggle following his recovery from a thigh injury, and with Ishan Kishan being the only other wicketkeeper, the selectors have decided to err on the side of caution by naming Samson as a reserve.

However, shouldn't the Kerala keeper-batter be in the main squad, given his excellent ODI numbers? In 13 matches, he has amassed 390 runs at an average of 55.71 and a strike rate of 104.00 and also hammered a half-century in his last innings in the format against West Indies.

Suryakumar Yadav and Tilak Varma, who have less of a case on paper when compared to Samson, are part of the Asia Cup squad. The 28-year-old is definitely unfortunate to have missed out.