Asian Games 2023: Ruturaj Gaikwad-led Indian Cricket Team's Report Card after Nepal win; Yashasvi Jaiswal-Rinku Singh big positives

The first quarterfinal of men's cricket in the Asian Games 2023 was played between India and Nepal on Tuesday (October 3) at the Pingfeng Campus Cricket Field, Hangzhou, China. The Ruturaj Gaikwad-led team beat Nepal by 23 runs in their very first outing in the 19th Asian Games.

After winning the toss, India elected to bat first on what was looking like a high-scoring ground. India put up a massive total of 202 runs, courtesy of Jaiswals's century in the first innings. Later, Indian bowlers restricted Nepal to 179, helping their team to win by 23 runs. Here we look at the report card of Indian players in the first quarterfinal.

India vs Nepal: Yashasvi Jaiswal continues to raise his stocks

The young southpaw from India has been making headlines since the IPL 2023. After his recent success in Test cricket in the Caribbean, Jaiswal is now seen as a future all-format player for India.

Taking on against the Nepali bowlers, Jaiswal showed his class and brought up his maiden T20I ton. He accumulated 103 runs with Ruturaj Gaikwad for the first wicket and completed his century in just 49 balls, which included eight fours and seven massive sixes.

The southpaw was instrumental in breaking the confidence of Nepali bowlers early in the innings by hitting four sixes in the first four overs. While the wickets kept falling at the other end, in the latter stage of the game, Jaiswal not only stood his ground but also kept scoring at a quick rate, setting the stage for Rinku Singh and Shivam Dube to finish.

Tilak Varma and Jitesh Sharma disappoint

Tilak Varma, another young prospect of Indian cricket, couldn't add much to the total and departed after scoring just two runs. Varma - who made his ODI and T20I debut for India and did pretty well in the latter - looked stuck at the crease against Nepal as he took 10 deliveries to make those two runs.

Wicketkeeper-batter Jitesh Sharma, making his international debut, also failed to impress and got out cheaply for five runs as he top-edged one, straight to spinner Sandeep Lamichhane, leaving India in a spot of bother.

Rinku Singh stars again

However, Rinku Singh's arrival in the middle after Jaiswal's departure once again changed the course of the game. The ball was gripping a little when the explosive left-handed batter walked into the middle as the opposition bowlers were trying to make a comeback on a surface where batting wasn't looking easy.

Rinku Singh took a few balls to get used to the pitch and then started smacking the bowlers all over the ground. He added 52 runs with Shivam Dube and made 37 runs off just 15 balls, including two fours and four sixes, helping India cross the 200-run mark in the first innings.

Rinku has now become a household name in India as the 25-year-old all-rounder from Aligarh has made a name for himself as a finisher, very early in his career. He lived up to the reputation against Nepal.

Indian spinners spin a web

Later, India's tweakers Ravi Bishnoi and Ravisrinivasan Sai Kishore used the slowness of the track to their advantage and picked four wickets in total, giving just 49 runs in their eight overs, combined.

Ravi Bishnoi, the young leg-spinner from Rajasthan, is one of the best leggies in India at the moment and the right-arm tweaker proved his mettle. He picked three wickets in the middle overs, making it difficult for the Nepali middle-order batters to score freely.

Sai Kishore, the Tamil Nadu Premier League sensation, made his T20I debut in the game and he not only took the all-important wicket of dangerous-looking Kushal Bhurtel but also contained the Nepalese innings, giving away just 25 runs from his quota of four overs.

IND vs NEP: Arshdeep Singh and Shivam Dube go for plenty

Arshdeep Singh, India's new death overs specialist, was hammered badly by the Nepali batters. Though the left-arm pacer from Punjab picked up a couple of wickets, his bowling looked average at best against Nepal. Arshdeep leaked 43 runs from his four overs.

Shivam Dube, the batting all-rounder who seems to have revived his career after being associated with Chennai Super Kings in the IPL, was belted for plenty as his one-dimensional bowling approach didn't do him any good.

Dipendra Singh Airee - who smashed a world record nine-ball T20I fifty in the previous encounter - hit him for three sixes in a row as the Mumbaikar ended his bowling figures by conceding 37 runs in three overs, and remained wicketless.

India's terrible ground fielding vs Nepal

India have been facing the tag of 'poor fielding' side for a long time now. Both in the Asia Cup 2023 and the Australia ODI series, we saw many catches being put down by the senior team. The junior team continued the trend today as well, giving away many easy runs on the field. However, Rahul Tripathi and Rinku Singh combined to take a brilliant catch near the rope.