BENGALURU: Senior Indian batsman Virat Kohli, who is going through a bad patch, has been left out of the T20I series against West Indies. The in-form pacer Jasprit Bumrah and leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal are also rested.
KL Rahul and left-arm spinner Kuldeep Yadav have been inducted into the squad but their selection is subject to fitness. Ace off-spinner R Ashwin has also made a comeback to the T20I team.
India will tour the West Indies for five T20Is which will be played between July 29 and August 7. Rohit Sharma, who at present is captaining the ODI team in England, will lead the squad against West Indies.
Pacer Umran Malik hasn’t made the cut, but Avesh Khan and Arshdeep Singh are selected to assist Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Harshal Patel. While Rishabh Pant is expected to keep the wickets, Dinesh Karthik – on the back of his glorious run in the T20s – is chosen as a finisher.
Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja and Deepak are the three all-rounders who are included in the squad.
Leg-spinner Ravi Bishnoi and left-arm tweaker Axar Patel will vie for a place in the playing XI.
SQUAD: Rohit Sharma (C), 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.