India’s out-of-form star batsman Virat
Kohli was missing from the 18-member squad announced by selectors Thursday
for the upcoming five-match Twenty20 series in West Indies.
Former captain Kohli, 33, has been going through a prolonged lean patch and
has not hit a century since 2019, with his future now a matter of intense
public debate in his cricket-obsessed country.
The national selectors did not clarify whether the top-order batter had
finally been dropped or was merely being rested over injury concerns ahead of
the T20 World Cup in Australia.
Ace off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin returned to the T20 format, as will
opener KL Rahul and left-arm spinner Kuldeep Yadav if they prove their
fitness to confirm their spots.
India’s all-format captain Rohit Sharma will lead the pace-heavy squad with
several breakthrough stars from the Indian Premier League T20 tournament.
The five matches will be played at three venues in Trinidad, St Kitts and
Lauderhill in the US state of Florida.
Squad: Rohit Sharma (capt), Ishan Kishan, KL Rahul*, Suryakumar Yadav, Deepak
Hooda, Shreyas Iyer, Dinesh Karthik, Rishabh Pant (wkt), Hardik Pandya,
Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravi Bishnoi, Kuldeep
Yadav*, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Avesh Khan, Harshal Patel, Arshdeep Singh.
