India’s limited-overs squad selection for the upcoming home series against the West Indies marked the return of an old template, wrist-spin taking centre-stage again. After a long hiatus, Kuldeep Yadav is back to the 50-over fold to pair up with Yuzvendra Chahal, while Ravichandran Ashwin hasn’t been included either in the ODI squad or for the T20Is. India will play three ODIs and as many T20Is against the West Indies, in Ahmedabad and Kolkata respectively, starting from February 6. Rohit Sharma has recovered from his hamstring injury to lead India in the series.
Ashwin was brought back to the white-ball fold before the T20 World Cup last year. Then, he was picked for the ODI series in South Africa as well. There have been talks about the senior off-spinner being ruled out due to an injury. But the BCCI didn’t mention anything, although it confirmed that “Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Shami have been rested” and Ravindra Jadeja has been “undergoing his final stage of recovery post his knee injury”.
It is learnt that the selection meeting was lengthy, the Chetan Sharma-led committee dissecting India’s 3-0 ODI series loss in South Africa and discussing the way forward. Both head coach Rahul Dravid and stand-in skipper for the South Africa series KL Rahul had spoken about a few changes going ahead and eventually, the selection committee decided to fall back on the wrist-spin pair that had contributed to India’s white-ball recovery after the 2017 Champions Trophy.
ODI squad: Rohit Sharma (Captain), KL Rahul (Vice-captain), Ruturaj Gaikwad, Shikhar Dhawan, Virat Kohli, Surya Kumar Yadav, Shreyas Iyer, Deepak Hooda, Rishabh Pant (wicket-keeper), Deepak Chahar, Shardul Thakur, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Washington Sundar, Ravi Bishnoi, Mohd. Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, Avesh Khan
T20I squad: Rohit Sharma (Captain), KL Rahul (Vice-captain), Ishan Kishan, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Surya Kumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant (wicket-keeper), Venkatesh Iyer, Deepak Chahar, Shardul Thakur, Ravi Bishnoi, Axar Patel, Yuzvendra Chahal, Washington Sundar, Mohd. Siraj, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Avesh Khan, Harshal Patel.
