Asia Cup 2018: Rohit Sharma-led Team India flies off to Dubai to defend title - See Pics

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Mumbai, Sep 14: Team India under the leadership of their stand-in captain Rohit Sharma has left for Dubai for the upcoming Asia Cup 2018. India are the defending champions of the Asia Cup, which they won in Bangladesh under the leadership of the then captain MS Dhoni.

This time around, Dhoni is accompanying the team but only as a member of the squad. Rohit successfully led India to glory in the Nidahas T20I Trophy 2018, which was held in Sri Lanka earlier this year. India defeated Bangladesh in a nail-biting encounter which the Men In Blue won with a last-ball by Dinesh Karthik.

Asia Cup 2018 Special Page | Schedule | Asia Cup Stats

Rohit Sharma was leading a relatively younger team in that series but the present Indian side has regular players, but Virat Kohli. Kohli has been rested by the selectors after the hectic England tour where they lost the three-match ODI series and five-match Test series to the hosts.

The Asia Cup 2018, which is back to its 50-overs format this year will be played between six countries namely, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Hong Kong (qualifier).

All the matches, even Hong Kong's, have been granted one-day international status by the International Cricket Council (ICC). Hong Kong is an associate nation.

Hong Kong, India, and Pakistan have been put under Group A, while Group B comprises Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka.

There will be a total of 12 matches played across the two venues in UAE, culminating in the final at Dubai International Cricket Stadium on September 28.

In the first stage, the six teams are divided into two groups, A and B, with the three teams from each group playing the others in their group once. The top two from each group will then progress to the Super Four, where they will face all other teams once.

From there, the top two teams play each other in the final.

India Squad: Rohit Sharma (C), Shikhar Dhawan, Lokesh Rahul, Ambati Rayudu, Manish Pandey, Kedar Jadhav, MS Dhoni (wk), Dinesh Karthik, Hardik Pandya, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Axar Patel, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah, Shardul Thakur, K Khaleel Ahmed.