After World Cup, reset, play

Mumbai, July 21

Opener Shikhar Dhawan returned to India’s limited-overs squad after recovering from a thumb injury while Rishabh Pant was picked in all the three formats for the West Indies tour as the selectors braced up for life beyond Mahendra Singh Dhoni. Former India captain Dhoni has made himself “unavailable” for the West Indies tour but ruled out immediate retirement.

Speculations over captain Virat Kohli being rested for the tour were put to rest as the batting mainstay will lead India across formats. Rookie leg-spinner Rahul Chahar emerged as the lone new face across three formats for the upcoming overseas assignments, while all-rounder Hardik Pandya has been rested for the tour. Also coming back into the ODI squad are Shreyas Iyer and Manish Pandey. Promising batsman Shubman Gill, though, missed out on selection.

The squads for the T20Is, ODIs and the Test series were announced by the MSK Prasad-led selection committee. A notable inclusion was veteran wicketkeeper-batsman Wriddhiman Saha, who is back in the Test squad after undergoing a shoulder surgery for an injury, sustained during the 2018 IPL.

Saha last played a Test match in South Africa in January 2018. Rajasthan leg-spinner Chahar has been rewarded for his consistent show in the IPL and domestic cricket with a berth in the T20I squad. He is the younger cousin of seamer Deepak Chahar, who is also in the T20I squad. From the World Cup squad, the prominent player to be dropped is Dinesh Karthik, while Hardik and Jasprit Bumrah have been rested as a part of the board’s workload management programme.

Bumrah, though, is part of the Test squad. Quite a few of the players were picked based on their performance 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 have an unwritten norm that when an established cricketer is injured, he should get a comeback opportunity. That’s what we have given to Saha,” chief selector Prasad said.

Selectors bet on Pant

Pant, who was included in India’s World Cup campaign after Vijay Shankar’s toe injury, has been named in the squad across all the three formats. Bhuvneshwar Kumar will spearhead the attack in the shortest format with Mohammed Shami joining him for the three ODIs. Delhi pacer Navdeep Saini has been included in the limited-overs side while Deepak Chahar was picked for the T20Is. The selection panel also went for left-arm pacer Khaleel Ahmed for the limited-overs leg. — PTI

THREE T20I, THREE ODI AND TWO TEST matches

• T20I squad: Virat Kohli (captain), Rohit Sharma (vice-captain), Shikhar Dhawan, KL Rahul, Shreyas Iyer, Manish Pandey, Rishabh Pant (wk), Krunal Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Washington Sundar, Rahul Chahar, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Khaleel Ahmed, Deepak Chahar, Navdeep Saini
• ODI squad: Virat Kohli (captain), Rohit Sharma (vice-captain), Shikhar Dhawan, KL Rahul, Shreyas Iyer, Manish Pandey, Rishabh Pant (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kedar Jadhav, Mohammed Shami, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Khaleel Ahmed, Navdeep Saini
• Test squad: Virat Kohli (captain), Ajinkya Rahane (vice-captain), Mayank Agarwal, KL Rahul, C Pujara, Hanuma Vihari, Rohit Sharma, Rishabh Pant (wk) Wriddhiman Saha (wk), R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Ishant Sharma, Mohammed Shami, Jasprit Bumrah, Umesh Yadav
• Duration: India’s tour of the West Indies will kick off with a three-match T20I series (August 3, 4, 6) followed by a three-match ODI series (August 8, 11, 14). 
• The tour will conclude with a two-Test series (August 22-26 and August 30- September 3).