Photo courtesy: IANS
The team for India’s five Twenty20 International matches against the West Indies was unveiled by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). The newly formed selection committee, led by Ajit Agarkar, released its first squad yesterday. The five-match T20I series will start on August 3 and end on August 13; there will be five matches in total. The previous T20I match between India and New Zealand was on February 1 at home. The team that last competed against New Zealand underwent the following six changes.
In:
- Yashasvi Jaiswal
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- Tilak Varma
- Avesh Khan
- Axar Patel
- Sanju Samson
- Ravi Bishnoi
Yashasvi Jaiswal and Tilak Varma, two young players, received their first T20I calls to the national team. With his efforts with Rajasthan Royals in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023, Jaiswal won over many fans. The first hitter, a 21-year-old, scored 625 runs in IPL 2023, the most ever by an uncapped player. Jaiswal received his first test squad call-up as well. Varma played in the middle order for the Mumbai Indians throughout the previous two seasons. He participated in 14 games in the IPL 2022 and scored 397 runs at a strike rate of 131.02. This year, when he played 11 games and accrued 343 runs with a strike rate of 164.11, was his breakout season.
At the Asia Cup group stage in August 2022, Avesh Khan last faced Hong Kong in a T20I match. This season, he participated in nine games and took eight wickets. Axar Patel, the team’s star all-arounder, has been included after missing the T20I series because of his wedding. Patel was one of the Delhi Capitals team’s few bright spots. The all-round spinner had a strike rate of 139.41 while scoring 283, and he took 11 wickets with the bat while maintaining an economy of 7.19.
Sanju Samson, the wicketkeeper batsman, has also been included in the team. Ishan Kishan would struggle to secure a spot at the top of the order in a team containing Shubman Gill and Jaiswal, therefore Samson might be in the starting XI before the left-handed opening batter. Ravi Bishnoi, a young spinner, has also joined the group. Bishnoi has so far participated in 10 T20I games for India. In September 2022, he last faced Pakistan in the Asia Cup Super Four game. He has participated in 10 games and has taken 16 wickets while only giving up 7.09 runs per over.
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Out:
- Rahul Tripathi
- Deepak Hooda
- Prithvi Shaw
- Jitesh Sharma
- Washington Sundar
- Shivam Mavi
Deepak Hooda and Rahul Tripathi were underwhelmed with their performances in the series against New Zealand, and they also struggled in the IPL. In the previous series, Prithvi Shaw and Jitesh Sharma did not feature in a single game. Shaw had an average IPL season and was even dropped by the DC squad due to his subpar play. Jitesh, on the other side, had a fantastic season as a finisher for the Punjab Kings in the IPL. This season, he had a strike rate of 156.06 and scored 309 runs. The IPL injury that Washington Sundar sustained has kept him out of play for some time despite his performance against New Zealand. After taking four wickets in his first T20I outing, pacer Shivam Mavi has fallen short of expectations. He did not participate in any IPL games this season.
India’s T20I squad vs West Indies
Hardik Pandya (C), Ishan Kishan (wk), Shubman Gill, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Tilak Varma, Surya Kumar Yadav (VC), Sanju Samson (wk), Axar Patel, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Ravi Bishnoi, Arshdeep Singh, Umran Malik, Avesh Khan, Mukesh Kumar
Also Read: World Cup 2023: How Does The Schedule Benefit India?
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