Virat Kohli and Jasprit Bumrah have been rested from India’s squad for T20I series against West Indies, the BCCI announced on Thursday.
Rahul, who recently underwent a surgery for sports hernia, and Kuldeep Yadav were picked in the 18-man squad subject to fitness. Kuldeep had suffered a hand injury in the home series against South Africa in June.
Ravichandran Ashwin also made a comeback to the T20 squad, having played his last T20 in November last year. Star leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal has also been given rest.
Besides Kohli, Bumrah will not be part of the Caribbean and the United States tour.
Skipper Rohit Sharma, Rishabh Pant and Hardik Pandya, who will not be part of the preceding ODI series, will return for the T20s. Shikhar Dhawan will captain in ODIs.
Leg spinner Ravi Bishnoi has retained his place in the T20I side and so has pacer Avesh Khan. Left-arm pacer Arshdeep Singh, who was not part of the full-strength squad against England in the final two T20s, is back in the mix.
From the squad that won the series in England, pace sensation Umran Malik has been dropped. In his outings in Ireland and England, Malik has shown that he remains a work in progress and needs to improve on his accuracy.
The first T20 will be played in Trinidad on July 29, followed by a couple of games in St Kitts before the action moves to the US with two games scheduled in Lauderhill, Florida.
India’s squad for 5 T20Is: Rohit Sharma (Captain), 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.
(Inputs PTI)
