India's chances in Asia Cup 2018 without Virat Kohli

Asia Cup 2018 is around the corner with six Asian teams competing for the Asian supremacy. India, however, starts as the overwhelming favourites even without their talisman skipper, Virat Kohli.

Virat has undoubtedly been the backbone of the Indian team and his performance decides the results. Whenever India looked daunting on the field, Kohli came to the rescue. But with his absence in the tournament, other teams will fancy their chance. The team looks similar to what played ODIs in England. It will heavily depend on the current skipper Rohit Sharma to play well along with Shikhar Dhawan, KL Rahul and MS Dhoni. The last time Rohit Sharma captained team India was in Nidahas Trophy early this year that India won by beating Bangladesh in a nail-biting thriller. He also holds a good captaincy record of winning the tournament finals. But he has been guilty in recent times of being very inconsistent with his batting and this could eventually lead to a lot of pressure on the middle-order which is still not settled.

Virat, apart from being an aggressive captain and a brilliant fielder, did the bulk of scoring for the team in all the three formats. His absence will certainly show about how the team, especially, the middle-order performs against the world class bowling of Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. We saw in England how heavily dependent this Indian batting lineup is on Kohli and his absence can just release the extra stress from the opposition team. Dhoni would be crucial for the Indian team. All his experience will come into play and would have to hold the key to this team's success in the tournament.

India, the defending champions, would be hoping to play like they did the last time and hopefully be successful in defending it.