Indian squads for the West Indies tour announced – Unexpected surprises

The BCCI has just announced the squads for India’s tour of the West Indies where the team is set to play three T20Is the same number of ODIs and 2 tests.  The most notable in the announcement is the absence of the legend Mahendra Singh Dhoni with Rishab Pant taking on the gloves in the limited-overs formats and Wriddiman Saha in returning to the test squad.  Ravichandran Ashwin finds a spot in the tests while Dinesh Karthik misses out completely.  There were talks that captaincy would be split between Kohli and Rohit Sharma with the former leading the longer format but no such change has been effected.

India’s squad for 2 Tests: Virat Kohli (Captain), Ajinkya Rahane (VC), Mayank Agarwal, KL Rahul, C Pujara, Hanuma Vihari, Rohit Sharma, Rishabh Pant (WK) Wriddhiman Saha (WK), R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Ishant Sharma, Mohammed Shami, Jasprit Bumrah, Umesh Yadav

India’s squad for 3 ODIs: Virat Kohli (Captain), Rohit Sharma (VC), Shikhar Dhawan, KL Rahul, Shreyas Iyer, Manish Pandey, Rishabh Pant (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kedar Jadhav, Mohammed Shami, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Khaleel Ahmed, Navdeep Saini

India’s squad for 3 T20Is: Virat Kohli (Captain), Rohit Sharma (VC), Shikhar Dhawan, KL Rahul, Shreyas Iyer, Manish Pandey, Rishabh Pant (WK), Krunal Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Washington Sundar, Rahul Chahar, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Khaleel Ahmed, Deepak Chahar, Navdeep Saini

All the three squads seem to be well balanced with a mix of experience and exciting younger players are given a run in.  The Windies are formidable on their home turf but are also at their most vulnerable when playing India which should give a chance for all the current and future superstars to shine.