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India tour to West Indies – Rohit and Bumrah rested

Virat Kohli could be the greatest Indian cricketer of all time. (AP Photo/Rui Vieira)
Roar Guru
16th June, 2017
22

India tour the West Indies right after the Champions Trophy finals in England for a five ODI and one T20 series.

The squad for the short tour was announced yesterday and it is not that dissimilar to the one currently playing in England. The only difference being that Rishabh Pant and Kuldeep Yadav take the places of Rohit Sharma and Jasprit Bumrah.

Shikhar Dhawan, after a brilliant run in the Champions Trophy, keeps his place as the opener and Yuvraj Singh keeps his place at number four.

In the absence of Rohit Sharma, Ajinkya Rahane might open the batting with Shikhar Dhawan. Kedar Jadhav and MS Dhoni take up the rest of the batting positions. Virat Kohli will captain the side and play at number three – his usual spot.

It will be interesting to see if India plays Rishabh Pant at the top of the order resting Shikhar Dhawan.

Rishabh is an exciting player and it will be nice to see the Indian team management give him some games in this series.

The squad contains as many as three specialist wicket keepers including MS Dhoni which is a little odd.

Virat Kohli justified the resting of Rohit Sharma as a ploy to give the opener more time to recover from his hip surgery. There was no particular reason given for the exclusion of Jasprit Bumrah though.

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Bumrah wasn’t part of India’s long Test season and played in the IPL before the Champions Trophy, so unless he has picked up an injury it is a strange decision.

Ravindra Jadeja and Ravi Ashwin along with Kuldeep Yadav take care of the spin department in the squad. Considering the amount of cricket played by the Indian Test team recently, it would have been prudent to rest the Indian Test spinners.

Someone like Yuzvendra Chahal would have been a good addition to the X1 in place of Ashwin or Jadeja.

Umesh Yadav also is part of the ODI squad. Yadav played in all the home Tests this season and also played in the IPL. It will be interesting to see if Yadav will be rested by Kohli for the majority of the series.

Mohammed Shami who could not get a game in the ongoing Champions Trophy will be expected to take the new ball with Bhuvneshwar Kumar ahead of Umesh Yadav.

Hardik Pandya in all probability will play as the third seamer/all-rounder in the team. It will also be interesting to see if Rishabh Pant plays in the X1 on this tour.

India already have MS Dhoni and Dinesh Karthik as the wicket Keepers, so Rishabh Pant will most probably play as a specialist batsman in the X1.

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This tour is a short one and the team management will probably rotate the players to avoid any player burnout issues. India also tours Sri Lanka for a Test series in July and would want their Test specialists to be rested and free of injury for the same.

There is a strong possibility that Rishabh Pant and Kuldeep Yadav might find themselves in the starting X1 for India’s first game at Queens Park Oval on the 23rd.

Virat Kohli (capt), Shikhar Dhawan, Rishabh Pant, Ajinkya Rahane, MS Dhoni (wk), Yuvraj Singh, Kedar Jadhav, Hardik Pandya, R Ashwin, R Jadeja, Mohammed Shami, Umesh Yadav, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Kuldeep Yadav and Dinesh Karthik

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