India vs West Indies: Yashasvi Jaiswal, Tilak Varma receive India callup for T20Is; Hardik Pandya to lead

Hardik Pandya has been named skipper of the India T20I squad that will face West Indies in a five-match series in the Caribbean and the United States.

Ajit Agarkar-led BCCI selection committee announced the squad on Wednesday.

Youngsters Yashasvi Jaiswal and Tilak Varma, who stole the limelight for their respective franchises in the Indian Premier League (IPL) recently, have also been named in the squad. Kerala wicketkeeper batter Sanju Samson also features in the squad.

Jaiswal (625 runs) and Tilak Varma (343) enjoyed productive runs in the IPL for Rajasthan Royals and Mumbai Indians respectively.

Notably, the squad features neither Virat Kohli nor Rohit Sharma, as the Men in Blue look to build a team afresh keeping the 2024 T20 World Cup in mind.

India’s T20I squad: Ishan Kishan (wk), Shubman Gill, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Tilak Varma, Surya Kumar Yadav (VC), Sanju Samson (wk), Hardik Pandya (C), Axar Patel, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Ravi Bishnoi, Arshdeep Singh, Umran Malik, Avesh Khan, Mukesh Kumar.

While the emphasis for the next three months is on the 50-over World Cup and people privy to development would term it as being rested, it is certainly not a pattern in isolation that two pillars of Indian batting have not been a part of the last three T20 series (Sri Lanka, New Zealand), including this one.

As the saying is in Indian cricket circles, the two contemporary doyens “would never be officially dropped” but “phased out” unless some remarkable turnround happens, which would be nothing short of a miracle.

The meeting on Wednesday was also Ajit Agarkar’s first as chairman of the national selection committee and there weren’t any names that would have surprised anyone.

Rinku Singh, whose finishing skills at Nos 5 or 6 for KKR in IPL have impressed one and all, didn’t figure in the 15-member squad but it is understood that with only a week’s gap between the West Indies series and Ireland T20Is, there is a high possibility that both Rinku and Vidarbha’s Jitesh Sharma will make that team along with Ruturaj Gaikwad.

Jitesh the glovesman lost out as both Ishan Kishan and Sanju Samson are ahead in the pecking order and will always have an advantage unless they fail to perform.

The two players who have made international comebacks are pacer Avesh Khan and leg-spinner Ravi Bishnoi.

Bishnoi, who last played for India in the Asia Cup in September, will be playing first-class cricket for Gujarat this season.

The team has three wrist spinners with Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal also being part of the 15-member squad.

Axar Patel, who going by current form is a better T20 bet compared to Ravindra Jadeja, has been picked in the squad. In Jadeja’s case though, unlike Rohit and Kohli, he has been rested.

In the pace department, Avesh has been cranking it up with the red ball for Central Zone in the Duleep Trophy and in the absence of Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami and Mohammed Siraj, the pace department will be handled by Avesh and Umran Malik along with left-arm seamers from Arshdeep Singh.

Bengal’s Mukesh Kumar is the back-up pacer.

India’s T20I squad: Ishan Kishan (wk), Shubman Gill, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Tilak Varma, Surya Kumar Yadav (VC), Sanju Samson (wk), Hardik Pandya (C), Axar Patel, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Ravi Bishnoi, Arshdeep Singh, Umran Malik, Avesh Khan, Mukesh Kumar.

With inputs from PTI

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