India vs Hong Kong Asia Cup 2022 Predicted XI: Should Rishabh Pant replace out-of-form KL Rahul?

India vs Hong Kong Asia Cup 2022 Predicted XI: Wicketkeeper batter Rishabh Pant can return to India's T20I side if Rohit Sharma decides to rest his deputy KL Rahul, who is woefully out-of-form, against Hong Kong.

India is looking to seal a spot in the Super Four stages of the Asia Cup 2022 as they take on motivated and committed Hong Kong in the Asia Cup later on Wednesday in Dubai. Skipper Rohit has made it clear that experimentation will continue and hence one shouldn’t be surprised if there is another batting order that could be tried out on Wednesday.

It would be interesting to see if captain Rohit Sharma and coach Rahul Dravid field Rishabh Pant, R Ashwin and Deepak Hooda in the group clash against Hong Kong. Ashwin and Ravi Bishnoi could also get a look in, letting Yuzvendra Chahal and Jadeja cool their heels a bit. Games like Hong Kong do help in beefing up stats and no player would like to sit out.

For Virat Kohli, the Hong Kong match will be all about another quality hitting time in the middle against an attack that is sure to feel intimidated by his sheer presence in the middle. Obviously, the quality of Hong Kong bowling, to put it politely, won’t match up with Pakistan's, but there is always fear, as one doesn’t exactly know what to expect from an unknown entity.

Hong Kong are likely to play the same XI that defeated UAE in the final match of the Asia Cup Qualifier at Al Amerat and helped secure a spot in the tournament proper.

India's Predicted XI for Hong Kong: Rohit Sharma(c), KL Rahul, Virat Kohli, Deepak Hooda, Rishabh Pant (WK), Hardik Pandya, Dinesh Karthik, Yuzvendra Chahal, Ravichandran Ashwin, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Arshdeep Singh