Snubbed for Asia Cup 2022, Ishan Kishan shares motivational lines from rap song

Young Team India opener Ishan Kishan shared a few motivational lines from a rap song on Wednesday (August 10), a few days after being dropped from the T20 squad for Asia Cup 2022.

On Monday (August 8), the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) named the Indian squad for the upcoming Asia Cup, which will be played in the UAE from August 27 to September 11. Kishan and Sanju Samson were the notable omissions from the 15-member squad.

Kishan featured in only one T20I each against England and West Indies during Team India’s recent tours, scoring eight and 11, respectively. Reacting to his non-inclusion, the young left-hander shared a few lines from the rap song “Bella - Humble Poet” on his Insta story.

A screenshot of Ishan Kishan’s Insta story.

The selectors named regular skipper Rohit Sharma as captain of Team India’s Asia Cup 2022 squad, while KL Rahul, who is making a comeback, was picked as vice-captain.

The tournament in the UAE will also mark the return of Virat Kohli, who missed the West Indies series and won’t feature in the Zimbabwe ODIs as well.

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India’s squad for Asia Cup 2022: Rohit Sharma (Captain), KL Rahul (vice-captain), Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Deepak Hooda, Rishabh Pant (wicket-keeper), Dinesh Karthik (wicket-keeper), Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, R. Ashwin, Yuzvendra Chahal, Ravi Bishnoi, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Arshdeep Singh, Avesh Khan.

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“What about poor Ishan Kishan?” - Aakash Chopra surprised over opener’s exclusion

Former India opener Aakash Chopra was among those who expressed surprise over Kishan’s omission from the Asia Cup squad.

In a video posted on his YouTube channel, he opened up on India’s team selection for the UAE tournament and commented:

“There are three backup players: Deepak Chahar, Shreyas Iyer, and Axar Patel. But what about poor Ishan Kishan? Ishan Kishan, who was a member of your previous World Cup side, has opened in the most T20 matches since then.”

Former New Zealand all-rounder Scott Styris, however, backed Rahul’s selection over the southpaw. Sharing his thoughts on the Sports 18 show 'Sports Over the Top', he opined:

"It's a good question. KL Rahul is a simple decision. Probably of all the possible match-ups that we will discuss, I think this was the easiest one. You have seen how valuable he is to the Indian team, to the management and the selectors."

Having made his T20I debut in March of last year, Kishan has played 19 T20Is so far, scoring 543 runs at a strike rate of 131.15.