India's possible Test squad to face West Indies
After a gruelling Test series against England, which was won by the hosts 4-1, the Indian Test team will be in action in less than two weeks' time as they host West Indies in a two-match series.
The first of the two matches will be played in Rajkot from October 4 while the series will move on to Hyderabad for the second Test that gets underway on October 12. Following this series, India will tour Australia for a long tour and will be playing five Tests down under.
Following the debacle in England and the upcoming Australian tour in mind, one can expect the selectors to make a few changes to the Test squad. Let us take a look at how the Indian Test squad to face West Indies will look like.
Openers
Indian opening trio of Shikhar Dhawan, Murali Vijay and KL Rahul had a terrible tour of England as they failed almost every single time they took the field in the five matches. Barring KL Rahul, who scored 149 in the last innings of the tour, the openers failed to score a single fifty throughout the tournament.
Murali Vijay was dropped following his failure in the first two matches and was sent back home after the third Test and was replaced by youngster Prithvi Shaw in the squad. Although Prithvi didn't get to play a single game in England, he could be in line to open the batting with Rahul in the upcoming series against West Indies.
Shaw has been scoring runs heavily in the domestic circuit and has been very consistent with the bat whenever he walks out to the middle. With an eye on the Australian tour that will get underway later this year and beyond that, the selectors should give the nod to Prithvi in the West Indies so that he gets some experience before touring down under.
The third opener's place could be a toss-up between Dhawan and Mayank Agarwal. In spite of scoring three 50+ innings for Essex, Vijay might not be considered. It is high time the selectors move on from Dhawan and reward the consistent Mayank Agarwal with a place in the national side.
Probable picks: KL Rahul, Prithvi Shaw and Mayank Agarwal.