Asia Cup 2018: The Indian contingent leaves for UAE, shares photos of travel

What's the story?

The next big assignment for the Indian contingent awaits them in the United Arab Emirates, where the side will lock horns against a few of the other major Asian teams like Afghanistan, Pakistan and Sri Lanka for the 2018 edition of the Asia Cup. A few of the teammates have already left for the venue, and apparently, they are all in high spirits, as evident from the pictures that have been shared by them on social media.

In case you didn't know

The Indian team are still reeling from the thorough loss inflicted upon them by England. The side won the T20 series initially and started the tour on a high note, only to surrender the subsequent ODI series 2-1 and the Test series 4-1. The individual performances of players in the series have also come under heavy scrutiny, with the likes of Rahane scrapped from duty in the Asia Cup.

Instead, Ambati Rayudu, Dinesh Karthik and Kedhar Jadhav make rather stellar returns to the side that will be led by Rohit Sharma in the absence of Virat Kohli who has been rested. The event will also see the return of MS Dhoni to behind the stumps.

The details

The part of the India squad that had not featured in the England Test series, left from India earlier today, and it is their pictures that have surfaced on social media, through the Instagram handles of various players. Take a look at the fo9llowing posts:

The photos feature MS Dhoni, Rohit Sharma, Manish Pandey, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, and Kedhar Jadhav. Apart from them, Ambati Rayudu, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Axar Patel, and newbie Khaleel Ahmed have also left for Dubai from India.

What's next?

Shikhar Dhawan, KL Rahul, Hardik Pandya, Dinesh Karthik, Jasprit Bumrah and Shardul Thakur - who were all included in the Indian Test squad for England, are yet to depart for UAE and are bound to join the rest of the squad on September 16. India's first game in the tournament is against Hong Kong on September 18, after which they will take on arch-rivals Pakistan on September 19th.