A five-match series in an ODI World Cup year might seem strange and ill-timed, however, looking at the larger picture, it may not be so given there's a T20 World Cup to be held in less than 12 months from now in the same conditions. For India and West Indies, here is a chance to get the feel of the conditions and the team that might be there in a year from now as both teams have witness some significant changes.
For India especially, the seniors are slowly being phased out from the format and hence the onus is on Hardik Pandya, the likely permanent captain of the Indian white-ball team in the future to build a team from scratch. There have been some positive changes too, given how the young blood has performed in the last couple of series, but there have been some significant changes within those players as well.
So here's a look at the full list of changes in India's T20 squad for the West Indies series:
IN:
A few new inclusions are there for the Men in Blue. The top performer of IPL 2023, Yashasvi Jaiswal who made a good start in Test matches earned a maiden call-up in T20Is as well, as did Tilak Varma, his fellow southpaw who has done well in the last couple of seasons in the IPL for Mumbai Indians. Sanju Samson has made a return to the T20 side after missing the New Zealand series due to injury he sustained earlier in the series against Sri Lanka in January while Axar Patel has too been recalled after being unavailable in the last T20 assignment due to his marriage.
Among other returnees are pacer Avesh Khan and ;eg-spinner Ravi Bishnoi, who had yet another terrific IPL season playing for the Lucknow Super Giants.
OUT:
The list of the players getting left out is a bit longer. The entire backup top order has been dropped including openers Prithvi Shaw, Ruturaj Gaikwad and Rahul Tripathi, who did rather well in a couple of innings. Deepak Hooda was another omission from the squad after a really disappointing season of IPL. Wicket-keeper batter Jitesh Sharma, who was picked as Sanju Samson's replacement in the squad has also been left out for the West Indies series.
Among bowlers, Washington Sundar who was sidelined during the IPL with an injury and Shivam Mavi, the Uttar Pradesh pacer have also been dropped.
India's squad for West Indies T20I series: Hardik Pandya (c), Shubman Gill, Suryakumar Yadav (vc), Tilak Varma, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Sanju Samson (wk), Ishan Kishan (wk), Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Umran Malik, Mukesh Kumar, Yuzvendra Chahal, Ravi Bishnoi, Avesh Khan, Arshdeep Singh.
