Srinagar: Team India management have called up all-rounder Washington Sundar into the Asia Cup 2023 squad ahead of the final as injury cover for Axar Patel.
A report in Cricbuzz said that Sundar will join the India ODI squad in Colombo after Axar picked up niggles during the team’s six-run defeat to Bangladesh in a Super 4 clash on Friday.
Sundar who is offspinner bats left-handed, missed out on India’s 15-man ODI World Cup squad but will be part of their Asian Games 2023 campaign in China.
The 23-year-old Sundar last played an ODI in January this year and was part of India’s second-string squad for the Ireland T20I series in August, playing in two matches with the third being washed out due to rain.
Overall, Sundar has played in 16 ODIs so far, scored 233 runs and has 16 wickets to his name.
Meanwhile Axar has played two matches of the ongoing Asia Cup 2023 – both in Super 4 stage with the first against Sri Lanka and the second against Bangladesh.
Against Sri Lanka, he added a valuable 26 runs with the bat but was ineffective with the ball, bowling five wicketless overs for 29 runs. He fared better with the ball against Bangladesh though, returning figures of 1/47 from 9 overs.
With the bat, he scored a gritty 42 off 34 while batting at no. 8 to keep India’s hopes of chasing down 266 alive, a target they eventually fell short of by seven runs.