India announced their ODI and T20I squad for the series against West Indies with a slew of new names making the list.
Shreyas Iyer and Manish Pandey returned to both ODI as well as T20I squad while Navdeep Saini got his first limited overs call-up.
MS Dhoni, as expected, was not a part of either team while Hardik Pandya, Vijay Shankar and Jasprit Bumrah have also not been included. While Dhoni will be with his army regiment, both Pandya and Bumrah have been rested for the limited overs series. Vijay is currently recovering from a toe injury. This has meant both Saini and Khaleel Ahmed are part of the squad.
“He (Dhoni) is unavailable for this series. We had certain road-maps till World Cup and we subsequently have some plans and we want to groom Pant and that is the plan right now. Pant hasn’t done anything wrong for his non-inclusion in the playing XI,” said Prasad while announcing the squad.
“Rishabh Pant will be playing all the three formats so we will have to look about his workload management. Saha and KS Bharat will come into picture at some point.”
The BCCI chief selector further said that the squads for the West Indies tour have been announced keeping in consideration the performances of the players who are playing for India ‘A’ in the Caribbean Islands.
Iyer, Pandey, Rahul Chahar, Navdeep Saini and Krunal Pandya are among the ones who have been playing for India ‘A’ against West Indies ‘A’.
“We have taken India ‘A’ performances into consideration.” said Prasad.
Shikhar Dhawan also makes a comeback to the team after recovering from a thumb injury which ruled him out of the World Cup.
Mayank Agarwal, who was named in the World Cup squad and called in as a replacement of Vijay Shankar has been now left out of the ODI squad.
“I don’t do press conference in between any series and that has led to speculations. When Dhawan got injured, we already had a third opener in KL (Rahul). We didn’t have a left hander at top so the team management had requested for a left-hander and we had no option other than Pant. It confused many why middle-order came in for opener,” said Prasad.
During the course of the event where India reached the semis, Mayank Agarwal was also called in as replacement for Vijay Shankar.
“When Shankar was injured, Rahul had a big fall at the boundary so there was a medical emergency on whether he will continue or not. At that time, a written communication was given that a back-up opener was needed. That is when we went to Mayank.”
India’s tour of West Indies will take place from August 3 to September 3 and will be held in the Caribbean islands and the US.
The tour kicks off with two T20Is at the Broward County Stadium in Florida, US — played on August 3 and 4. They will then travel to Guyana to play the final T20I on August 6 at the Guyana National Stadium.
The T20I squad also includes all-rounder Krunal Pandya along with leg-spinner Chahar and fast bowler Deepak Chahar. Washington Sundar is also a part of the T20I squad. Both Kuldeep and Chahal have not been included in the T20I team.
India’s squad for 3 ODIs: Virat Kohli (Captain), Rohit Sharma (VC), Shikhar Dhawan, KL Rahul, Shreyas Iyer, Manish Pandey, Rishabh Pant (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kedar Jadhav, Mohammed Shami, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Khaleel Ahmed, Navdeep Saini
India’s squad for 3 T20Is: Virat Kohli (Captain), Rohit Sharma (VC), Shikhar Dhawan, KL Rahul, Shreyas Iyer, Manish Pandey, Rishabh Pant (WK), Krunal Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Washington Sundar, Rahul Chahar, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Khaleel Ahmed, Deepak Chahar, Navdeep Saini