Indian talisman batter Virat Kohli and gun fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah have been rested for the five-match T20I series against the West Indies. Leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal has also been rested from the T20I series.
It was earlier reported that Virat Kohli had asked for rest from the T20I series against the Windies. Kohli was also not picked for the ODI series against the Caribbean nation.
KL Rahul and Kuldeep Yadav have been included in the squad but their participation will be subject to their fitness. Arshdeep Singh, who received his maiden call-up in the series against England, has been retained in the squad.
Meanwhile, Ravichandran Ashwin returns to the T20I squad. Ashwin was part of India’s T20 World Cup squad and then played in the T20I series against New Zealand in 2021. But since then he hasn’t been part of white-ball teams for the national team. Thus, India is keeping its options open for the T20 World Cup, which will be played in Australia later in the year.
Furthermore, Hardik Pandya and Rishabh Pant have been named in the ODI squad after the duo was rested for the T20I series, in which Shikhar Dhawan will lead Team India in the absence of Rohit Sharma.
India and the West Indies will play five T20Is against each other, out of which two will be played in Florida, USA. India will also play three ODIs on the Caribbean tour and the visitors had earlier named their squad for the same.
The first game between India and West Indies will be an ODI match, which will take place at Queen’s Park Oval, Port of Spain, Trinidad on 22nd July.
India’s squad for 5 T20Is: Rohit Sharma (Captain), Ishan Kishan, KL Rahul, Suryakumar Yadav, Deepak Hooda, Shreyas Iyer, Dinesh Karthik, Rishabh Pant, Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, R Ashwin, Ravi Bishnoi, Kuldeep Yadav, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Avesh Khan, Harshal Patel, Arshdeep Singh.
