Opener Shikhar Dhawan Sunday returned to India’s limited overs squad after recovering from a thumb injury while Rishabh Pant was picked in all three formats for the West Indies tour as the selectors braced up for life beyond Mahendra Singh Dhoni.
Former India captain Dhoni, who is at the business end ofhis illustrious career, has made himself “unavailable” for the WestIndies tour but ruled out immediate retirement.
Speculations over Captain Virat Kohli being rested for thetour were put to rest as the batting mainstay will lead India across formats.
Rookie leg-spinner Rahul Chahar emerged as the lone new faceacross three formats for the upcoming overseas assignments, while all-rounderHardik Pandya has been rested for the tour. Also coming back into the ODI squadare Shreyas Iyer and Manish Pandey.
Promising batsman Shubman Gill, though, missed out onselection.
The squads for the T20, ODI and Test series were announcedby the MSK Prasad-led selection committee.
A notable inclusion was veteran keeper-batsman WriddhimanSaha, who is back in the Test squad after undergoing a shoulder surgery for aninjury, sustained during the 2018 IPL.
Saha last played a Test match in South Africa in January2018.
Rajasthan leg-spinner Chahar has been rewarded for hisconsistent show in the IPL and domestic cricket with a berth in the Twenty20squad. He is the younger cousin of seamer Deepak, who is also in the T20 squad.
From the World Cup squad, the prominent player to be droppedis Dinesh Karthik, while Hardik and Jasprit Bumrah have been rested as a partof the board’s workload management programme.
Bumrah, though, is part of the Test squad.
Quite a few of the players were picked based on theirperformance for India A recently.
“We have taken India A performances into consideration.In the longer format, KS Bharat was very, very close to get selected. We havean unwritten norm that when an established cricketer is injured, he should geta comeback opportunity. That’s what we have given to Saha,” chief selectorPrasad said.
Pant, who was included in India’s World Cup campaign afterVijay Shankar’s toe injury, has been named in the squad across all threeformats.
Dhawan, whose World Cup journey was cut short due to a thumbfracture during the second group game against Australia, has been declared fit.
Bhuvneshwar Kumar will spearhead the attack in the shortestformat with Mohammed Shami joining him for the three ODIs. Dehli pacer NavdeepSaini has been included in the limited overs side while Deepak Chahar waspicked for the T20Is.
The selection panel also went for left-arm pacer KhaleelAhmed for the limited overs leg.
“Rishabh, Wriddhiman and K S Bharat are some of theplayers we will be looking ahead for Test cricket.”
“We had certain plans for the World Cup but after thatwe have to give opportunities to youngsters who will go on to play forlong,” Prasad said of the the young faces in the limited overs squads.
The young Prithvi Shaw was not part of the squad as he isrecovering from an injury.
The tour will kick off with a three-match Twenty20 series(August 3, 4, 6) and will be followed by a three-match ODI series (August 8,11, 14). The tour will conclude with a two-Test series (August 22-26 and August30- September 3).
India’s squad for 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, BhuvneshwarKumar, Khaleel Ahmed, Deepak Chahar, Navdeep Saini
ODIs: Virat Kohli (Captain), Rohit Sharma (VC), ShikharDhawan, KL Rahul, Shreyas Iyer, Manish Pandey, Rishabh Pant (wk), RavindraJadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kedar Jadhav, Mohammed Shami,Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Khaleel Ahmed, Navdeep SainiTests: Virat Kohli (Captain), Ajinkya Rahane(VC), Mayank Agarwal, KL Rahul, C Pujara, Hanuma Vihari, Rohit Sharma, RishabhPant (WK) Wriddhiman Saha (WK), R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav,Ishant Sharma, Mohammed Shami, Jasprit Bumrah, Umesh Yadav.