AMN
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) today announced squads for India’s tour of the West Indies, starting from August 3rd. Virat Kohli will lead the Indian team for the Test, ODI and T20I series. Rohit Sharma will be Vice-Captain in the ODI and T20 series. Ajinkya Rahane will be Kohli’s deputy in the Test series. Opener Shikhar Dhawan returns to India’s limited-overs squad after recovering from a thumb injury. Rishabh Pant was picked in all three formats after MS Dhoni had made himself unavailable for the tour.
A notable inclusion has been veteran keeper-batsman Wriddhiman Saha, who is back in the Test squad after undergoing a shoulder surgery for an injury, sustained during the 2018 IPL.
From the World Cup squad, the prominent player to be dropped is Dinesh Karthik, while Hardik Pandya and Jasprit Bumrah have been rested as part of the board’s workload management programme. Bumrah, however, is part of the Test squad which also includes Ravichandran Ashwin, Ishant Sharma Mohammad Shami Hanuma Vihari and Umesh Yadav. Ravindra Jadeja and K.L.Rahul are included in all the three formats. Leg-spinner Rahul Chahar is the only new face across three formats. He is the younger cousin of seamer Deepak, who is also in the T20 squad. Others included in different squads are Bhuvaneswar Kumar, Khaleel Ahmed, Navdeep Saini Manish Pandey, Shreyas Iyer and Krunal Pandya.
India will play three-match Twenty20 Internationals and as many One-Day Internationals, followed by two-Test series against West Indies.