The BCCI on Wednesday announced India’s squads for the upcoming home white-ball series against the West Indies, with Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli included in the ODI side and Shreyas Iyer named captain for the five-match T20I leg. Shubman Gill will continue to lead the ODI team, with KL Rahul serving as vice-captain, while Rishabh Pant has been left out of both limited-overs squads and instead named captain of the Rest of India team for the Irani Cup. Naman Dhir has earned his maiden India call-up, while Jammu and Kashmir pacer Auqib Nabi has received his first ODI selection.
Rohit, Kohli retained
India will play three ODIs against the West Indies, beginning in Thiruvananthapuram on September 27 before matches in Guwahati on September 30 and New Chandigarh on October 3. The 15-member squad features Gill, Rohit, Kohli, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Rahul, Dhruv Jurel, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Prasidh Krishna, Gurnoor Brar, Mohammed Siraj, Nabi, Yashasvi Jaiswal and Dhir. Jadeja returns to the ODI set-up, while Nitish has been withdrawn from India’s Asian Games squad to feature against the West Indies.
Iyer leads T20 side
Iyer will captain the T20I team, with Tilak Varma appointed his deputy. The squad includes Abhishek Sharma, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, Ishan Kishan, Sanju Samson, Shivam Dube, Kuldeep, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Ravi Bishnoi, Nitish, Arshdeep Singh, Prince Yadav and Mayank Yadav. The five-match series begins in Lucknow on October 6, followed by games in Ranchi on October 9, Indore on October 11, Hyderabad on October 14 and Bengaluru on October 17. Pant has not been included in either white-ball squad despite speculation ahead of the selection meeting over a possible return.
Pant gets Irani captaincy
Pant will instead lead Rest of India against Ranji Trophy champions Jammu and Kashmir in the Irani Cup, beginning in Srinagar on October 1. Sarfaraz Khan has been named vice-captain, while Akash Deep’s inclusion is subject to fitness clearance. The squad also features Sanat Sangwan, Shikhar Mohan, Sudip Gharami, Smaran Ravichandran, Manav Suthar, Saransh Jain, Mukesh Kumar, Mukesh Choudhary, Aryan Juyal, Aryan Pandey, Anukul Roy and Ayush Doseja.
Nigam replaces Varun
The selectors also made changes to the squad for the Japan T20I and Asian Games. Varun Chakaravarthy has been ruled out of the September 22 T20I in Japan because of a side strain, with Vipraj Nigam earning his maiden international call-up as his replacement. Nitish has been withdrawn from the Asian Games squad following his selection for the West Indies ODIs. The revised Asian Games group will continue to be led by Iyer, with Tilak as vice-captain.