3 Reasons why India may not win Asia Cup 2018

Asia cup 2018 has begun and unsurprisingly Sri Lanka (five-time Asia Cup winners) have already been knocked out by an inspiring Afghanistan team. The Men in Blue, on the other hand, have been hailed as favourites to win this decorated tourney.

The Indian team is ticking every box that can see them sailing through the finals of the tournament and eventually winning it. But, there have been some problems that have existed in the squad for quite some time now, that can come to haunt the team in the future.

The problems relating to team combination, batting order if not rectified may see India potentially lose this Asia Cup 2018 despite being the favourites.

So, here are 3 reasons as to why India may lose this Asia Cup.

---

#3 Top heavy batting with an unsettled middle order

Manish has been woefully out of form since hitting that century in Australia

This problem we all have been hearing for a while now and Indian team has yet to find a member to make this position his own. In fact, since January 2017 India have tried as many as seven players in that position but to no avail.

India has tried the likes of Yuvraj Singh, Manish Pandey, Hardik Pandya, Kedar Jadhav, Dinesh Karthik among others but no one has been able to cement his place at the frustrating no. 4 position. Rahane, who had a pretty decent run at the position in 2015 including the World Cup, has also failed in that position.

There have been some arguments about Virat occupying the position himself to solve the conundrum, but any team will need his best batsman to play most number of balls and naturally, that number reduces at no. 4. So, India just might have to select the best from this lot for the time being to make sure and win this Asia Cup.

#2 Thin bowling stocks

Shami with all the numbers going for him has not cemented his place in the limited overs setup

A bowler with 91 ODI wickets in 50 matches at a very good average of 25.37 is unfortunately not part of the limited overs plan of a top-tier side. Mohammed Shami, unlike other players mentioned on this list, has the numbers going for him in bowling but finds himself out of the team.

The recent debacle of the ODI series defeat in England also opened up India's bowling, more specifically pace attack out in the open. The absence of Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Jasprit Bumrah saw India lost the last two matches of the series in spectacular fashion to a dominant English side.

Shami, for his exclusion from the team, has himself to blame for not being as fit a bowler for the limited overs cricket. But, his decent showing in England after a gruelling and demanding series, selectors may have missed a mark by not picking Shami for the Asia Cup.

#1 Over-Reliance on the top order

Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan

The recent successes of the Indian team in limited overs matches at home and abroad should be largely credited to the top order of the Indian team. Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan and Virat Kohli, the usual top 3, do the bulk of run-scoring that see India home more often than not.

The problem creeps in when this enviable top order fails to fire. This happens rarely but the recent trend suggests it happens more often in knockout matches.

The biggest example of this misfiring taking place was the Champions Trophy final 2017. These players are definitely big match winners but extreme crunch situations see their form ditching them and India lose terribly in these matches.

They are bound to fail albeit rarely given the consistency they show in scoring runs but this happening during a crucial knockout game can ruin India's bright chances of winning the marquee tournaments.