- Wednesday, April 24, 2024
By: Shubham Ghosh
ACE India opener Rohit Sharma, who has been picked as the country’s captain in the white-ball formats replacing Virat Kohli, has returned to lead the side in twin series coming up against the West Indies at home.
The 34-year-old, who missed the recently concluded tour of South Africa because of a hamstring injury, was named in the squad for the series against the Caribbeans announced on Wednesday (26).
The tour will feature three one-day internationals played at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad in the western state of Gujarat on February 6, 9 and 11 and three T20 internationals at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata on February 16, 18 and 20.
The visiting team’s squad for the one-day internationals has been announced and it will be led by veteran batter Kieron Pollard.
Sharma, who led India to a 3-0 win over New Zealand in a T20 international series at home before the South Africa tour, sustained an injury during a net session and he was replaced by KL Rahul as the vice captain in the three-Test series and captain in the three-one-day international series.
India lost both the series.
Rahul will join the Indian squad from the second match while fast bowlers Mohammed Shami and Jasprit Bumrah have been rested. Veteran spinner Ravichandran Ashwin, who was recently brought back to India’s white-ball teams, has been dropped for both the one-day and T20 international squads.
Ace spinner-all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja will also miss the series as he is in the final stage of recovery from his knee injury, the Board of Control for Cricket in India said.
Left-arm spinner Kuldeep Yadav returned to the one-day squad. The last time he played for Team India was in July 2021 against Sri Lanka.
The venues for the upcoming series against the West Indies were limited to two venues because of coronavirus concern.
India are yet to name a full-fledged Test captain after Kohli stepped down from the helm in the long format after the side lost the series against the Proteas 1-2 despite taking a lead.
Sharma is also nearing a personal milestone in the 50-over format as he is around 800 runs short of fulfilling 10,000 runs in the same.
India one-day squad for West Indies series: Rohit Sharma (captain), KL Rahul (vice-captain), Virat Kohli, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Shikhar Dhawan, Suryakumar Yadav, Shreyas Iyer, Deepak Hooda, Rishabh Pant (wicket-keeper), Deepak Chahar, Shardul Thakur, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Washington Sundar, Ravi Bishnoi, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, Avesh Khan
India T20 international squad: Rohit Sharma (captain), KL Rahul (vice-captain), Ishan Kishan, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant (wicket-keeper), Venkatesh Iyer, Deepak Chahar, Shardul Thakur, Ravi Bishnoi, Axar Patel, Yuzvendra Chahal, Washington Sundar, Mohammed Siraj, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Avesh Khan, Harshal Patel
