Squad Analysis: India's test squad vs West Indies
After an exciting victory in the finals of Asia Cup 2018, India is set to host the West Indies for a home series which will contain two Test matches, five One Day Internationals, and three Twenty20 Internationals. The first Test will begin from October 4, 2018, at Rajkot and the squad for the same has been announced by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) which included some surprise decisions.
A lot of names from the England series that were in the Indian squad went missing which included the likes of Shikhar Dhawan, Hardik Pandya, Jasprit Bumrah, Karun Nair, Dinesh Karthik, Ishant Sharma, and Murali Vijay as some of them have been rested while others are dropped from the side. Also, Bhuvneshwar Kumar has been rested now for the big tour of Australia. On the other hand, Mohammed Siraj and Mayank Agarwal have earned up their maiden calls to the national side after consistent performances in the domestic circuit. Prithvi Shaw is also there with the side even after not getting a single game in England.
Cricket experts on social media went crazy after they saw the omission of Rohit Sharma from the side after his tremendous form in the recently concluded Asia Cup 2018 where he ended as the second highest run-getter of the tournament. Similar reactions came when people saw no name of Karun Nair in that list of 15 players as the Karnataka batsman did not get his fair chances in the Indian team after scoring a triple hundred against England last year.
12 out of 15 players that are selected for the West Indies series are similar to that of England series which include Virat Kohli, KL Rahul, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Hanuma Vihari, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Rishabh Pant, Umesh Yadav, Mohammad Shami, Kuldeep Yadav, and Shardul Thakur.
While the selection of Kohli, Pujara, Rahane, Pant, Vihari, Ashwin and Shami looked confirmed after their performances in England and also each one of them is coming after a break from international cricket as they did not play in Asia Cup. Umesh, Kuldeep, and Thakur are still there in the squad even after not impressing much in England while Thakur didn't even get to play a single game there which is most likely to be the state here as well.
KL Rahul and Ravindra Jadeja were part of the Indian squad in the Asian Cup where Rahul played just a single game while Jadeja played most of the matches that were scheduled for India but both of look assured of getting a place in the playing XI in the opening test match at Rajkot.
So, the selected Indian squad is a mixture of both youth and experience which will be an interesting sight for the fans to watch out how skipper Virat Kohli will incorporate them altogether. Also, for players like Agarwal, Siraj, Thakur, and Shaw, it will be major chance to impress the team management and selectors in order to book a test berth once the Indian squad is at full strength. So, they have to make most of the opportunities that are given to them in this series.
Here is the squad of the Indian team to play against the West Indies:
India Squad: Virat Kohli (C), KL Rahul, Prithvi Shaw, Mayank Agarwal, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Hanuma Vihari, Rishabh Pant (wk), R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Shami, Umesh Yadav, Mohammed Siraj, Shardul Thakur