India announce full-strength squads against West Indies

A fit-again Bhuvneshwar Kumar along with full-time skipper Virat Kohli, have been recalled in the Indian squad for next month’s T20I and ODI series against West Indies. All-rounder Shivam Dube, who was impressive against Bangladesh in the last T20I series, had also been rewarded with a maiden call-up in the 50-over format on Thursday.

India is scheduled to play three Twenty 20 Internationals against the West Indies with the series-opener in Mumbai on December 6 followed by matches in Thiruvananthapuram (December 8) and Hyderabad (December 11).The three ODIs will be played in Chennai (December 15), Visakhapatnam (December 18) and Cuttack (December 22).

A side strain and a hamstring injury forced seamer Bhuvneshwar to come back midway from the tour of West Indies in August. Whereas Kohli was given a break in the T20Is against Bangladesh.

Meanwhile, with Kohli coming back, Sanju Samson, who was included in the last series as the specialist batsman had to be kept out of the squad. Whereas Shikhar Dhawan, despite his poor run of form, gets another chance while in-form pacer Mohammed Shami and left-arm spinner Kuldeep Yadav were back in the shortest format once again.

Seamer Deepak Chahar, who recently had a terrific T20 series against Bangladesh has been picked in the ODI squad whereas his younger cousin leg-spinner Rahul Chahar had to miss out due to Kuldeep’s comeback.

Furthermore, Krunal Pandya, who had been a regular feature in India’s T20I set-up for a while, also has been dropped as veteran Ravindra Jadeja has made a comeback.

Kedar Jadhav, meanwhile, has managed to hold on to his ODI place despite the presence of Shreyas Iyer and Manish Pandey in both squads.

Interestingly, in both the squads, selectors haven’t picked a back-up wicket-keeper, which has raised quite a eyebrows following all the criticism Rishabh Pant has to face in recent times due to his poor performance in both in front and behind the stumps.

T20I squad: Virat Kohli (C), Rohit Sharma (VC), Shikhar Dhawan, KL Rahul, Shreyas Iyer, Manish Pandey, Rishabh Pant (WK), Shivam Dube, Washington Sundar, Ravindra Jadeja, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Deepak Chahar, Mohammed Shami, Bhuvneshwar Kumar

ODI squad: Virat Kohli (C), Rohit Sharma (VC), Shikhar Dhawan, KL Rahul, Shreyas Iyer, Manish Pandey, Risbhabh Pant (WK), Shivam Dube, Kedar Jadhav, Ravindra Jadeja, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Deepak Chahar, Mohammed Shami, Bhuvneshwar Kumar.