India’s squads for the upcoming tour of West Indies were announced on Sunday with skipper Virat Kohli set to lead the side across all three formats.
All eyes were on MS Dhoni’s situation when the selectors met on Sunday and the veteran wicketkeeper was not included in either of the three squads after making himself ‘unavailable’ for the tour.
“He is unavailable for this series, he has expressed his unavailability,” chief selector MSK Prasad said.
“Having said that, we had a certain roadmap and plans till the World Cup.
“Post the World Cup, we have laid down a few more plans and we thought of giving opportunities to Rishabh Pant to see him being groomed. We did discuss things with Dhoni.”
With Dhoni unavailable, the selectors have handed Rishabh Pant the wicketkeeping gloves for the T20 and ODI series while Wriddhiman Saha will perform the role in the Test series.
Veteran Dinesh Karthik has failed to find a place in either the T20 or ODI side after his World Cup disaster while all-rounder Vijay Shankar has not been picked as well after failing to recover from his toe injury.
India’s squad for 2 Tests: Virat Kohli (Captain), Ajinkya Rahane (VC), Mayank Agarwal, KL Rahul, C Pujara, Hanuma Vihari, Rohit Sharma, Rishabh Pant (WK) Wriddhiman Saha (WK), R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Ishant Sharma, Mohammed Shami, Jasprit Bumrah, Umesh Yadav
— BCCI (@BCCI) July 21, 2019
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
— BCCI (@BCCI) July 21, 2019
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
— BCCI (@BCCI) July 21, 2019
The biggest omission in the Test squad was that of seamer Bhuvneshwar Kumar with Umesh Yadav, Mohammad Shami and Ishant Sharma forming the pace battery alongside Bumrah.
Star all-rounder Hardik Pandya, meanwhile, will not travel to the West Indies after being handed a rest for the entire tour. Pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah has been picked for the Test squad but rested for the ODI and T20 clashes.
Uncapped pacer Navdeep Saini and Mumbai Indians leg-spinner Rahul Chahar have been called up as well with the former finding a place in the ODI and T20 squads while the latter has been selected in the T20 squad.
Making a return to the ODI squad are Shreyas Iyer, Manish Pandey and Khaleel Ahmed while Washington Sundar and Deepak Chahar have been handed T20 call ups.
India are slated to play two Tests, three ODIs and as many T20s in their tour of the Caribbean which gets underway on August 3. The tour will begin with the T20 series with the first two clashes set to take place in at Lauderhill, Florida in the United States before the two teams return to the Caribbean for the remainder of the clashes.
India Test Squad: Virat Kohli (Captain), Ajinkya Rahane (vc), Mayank Agarwal, KL Rahul, Cheteshwar Pujara, Hanuma Vihari, Rohit Sharma, Rishabh Pant (wk) Wriddhiman Saha (wk), Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Ishant Sharma, Mohammed Shami, Jasprit Bumrah, Umesh Yadav.
India ODI Squad: 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 T20I squad: 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.
