India’s Test squad (4 test matches) for the tour of West Indies and limited-overs squad (3 Odis and as many T20s) for the tour of Zimbabwe were announced on Monday, Virat Kohli and MS Dhoni will lead the side in West Indies and Zimbabawe respectively. Ajinkya Rahane has been appointed as the deputy of Virat Kohli in the test squad.
As expected many of the senior players the likes of Virat kohli, Rohit sharma, Ajinkya Rahane etc.. who were playing continuously since the start of the year have been rested from the limited-overs squad, and a bunch of youngsters who were doing well domestically and in IPL have been given an opportunity in the tour of Zimbabwe. The likes of Faiz Fazal, Karun Nair, Mandeep Singh, Yuzvendra Chahal and Jayant Yadav are the new faces in the ODI squad, which will be led by Dhoni, who is the only regular and experienced player in the squad. The rest of the squad have very limited experience to show in ODIs. India will be playing 3 ODIs and 3 T20Is in Harare during the tour of Zimbabwe. The series will start with the ODIs, which are scheduled to be played on June 11, 13 and 15. It will be followed by the T20Is on June 18, 20 and 22. Suresh Raina who was very much a part of LOI squad didn’t manage to find a place in either of the ODI or T20 squad.
There are hardly any surprises in the Test team. The Kohli-led team has all the elite players in the squad. Uncapped Mumbai pacer Shardul Thakur, who had an excellent domestic season last year has found a place in the 17-member squad. The only player who is common in both the squads is KL Rahul, who will play the role of 2nd wicket keeper if needed. Meanwhile, the dates and venues for the West Indies Test series are yet to be confirmed.
Here’s the full ODI and TEST squad for the tour of ZIMBABWE and WEST INDIES respectively : –
India’s 15-man squad for the Tour of Zimbabwe: MS Dhoni (c & wk), KL Rahul, Faiz Fazal, Manish Pandey, Ambati Rayudu, Karun Nair, Axar Patel, Rishi Dhawan, Jasprit Bumrah, Barinder Sran, Mandeep Singh, Kedar Jadhav, Jaidev Unakdat, Yuzvendra Chahal, Jayant Yadav.
India’s 17-member Test squad for the Tour of West indies: Virat Kohli (c), Murali Vijay, Shikhar Dhawan, KL Rahul, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Rohit Sharma, Wriddhiman Saha (wk), Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Ishant Sharma, Mohammed Shami, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Umesh Yadav, Shardul Thakur, Stuart Binny.