Mannava Sri Kanth Prasad, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) Chief, on the 21st of July, announced the Indian squad, which will play the upcoming West Indies Tour 2019.
Mr. Prasad, after a meeting, announced the squad which will play against West Indies in three formats of cricket, two Test matches, three One Day Internationals (ODIs) and three T20 Internationals (T20Is.)
Mr. Prasad selected Virat Kohli, the Captain of the Indian Cricket Team, to lead the squad in all the three formats against West Indies.
However, as expected, players such as Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Hardik Pandya were not included in the Squad.
Speaking about M.S. Dhoni, selectors said, M.S. Dhoni is not available for the tournament, hence, they decided to select Rishab Pant and groom him for the matches against West Indies.
When asked about the rumours of Dhoni’s retirement, Mr. Prasad said, “Retirement is purely individual (decision). A legendary cricketer like Dhoni, he knows when to retire. What is the future course of action, that is in the hands of the selection committee? I don’t think we need to discuss anything more on it. First of all, he is not available. Second, we have already started grooming youngsters.”
M.S.K. Prasad selected Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, K.L. Rahul. Shreyas Iyer, Manish Pandey, Rishabh Pant, Krunal Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Washington Sundar, Rahul Chahar, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Khaleel Ahmed, Deepak Chahar and Navdeep Saini for the T20Is.
The players selected for the three ODIs are Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, K.L. Rahul, Shreyas Iyer, Manish Pandey, Rishabh Pant, Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kedar Jadhav, Mohammed Shami, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Khaleel Ahmed and Navdeep Saini.
Last but not the least, the players who will be a part of the two Test matches against West Indies are Virat Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane, Mayank Agarwal, K.L. Rahul, C. Pujara, Hanuma Vihari, Rohit Sharma, Rishabh Pant, Wriddhiman Saha, R. Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Ishant Sharma, Mohammed Shami, Jasprit Bumrah and Umesh Yadav.
India reached the semifinals of the International Cricket Council (ICC) World Cup and was defeated by Team New Zealand. The West Indies Tour is another chance for the Indian Cricket Team to make India proud.
The West Indies Tour will be a one month tournament, starting from the 3rd of August in West Indies.
Stay tuned for further updates.
