The much-awaited Indian squad for West Indies tour 2019 was revealed by BCCI on Sunday, July 21. The squad for all the three series i.e. ODIs, T20s and Tests were announced by BCCI in a press conference. Virat Kohli is going to lead the team in all three formats. MS Dhoni, Jasprit Bumrah, Hardik Pandya were rested while Shikhar Dhawan made a comeback after recovering from his thumb injury. MS Dhoni had already made himself unavailable for the tour and Rishabh Pant was included as wicketkeeper in the squad. Twitter was filled with reactions of cricket fans after the announcement. India Squad For West Indies Tour 2019 Announced: Virat Kohli To Captain Side; MS Dhoni, Jasprit Bumrah, Hardik Pandya Rested.
The squad for the three T20 matches includes 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. The ODI side will consist of 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 vs West Indies Series 2019 Schedule in IST, Free PDF Download: Get Fixtures, Time Table With Match Timings and Venue Details of India's Tour of West Indies.
For two Tests, Rohit Sharma is replaced by Ajinkya Rahane as vice-captain. Here is the squad for the Test series. 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.
Indian cricket fans were eagerly waiting for the announcement and were quick to respond on the selection. While some questioned retaining Virat Kohli as skipper and backed for Rohit Sharma as captain, some others were surprised over the exclusion of Hardik Pandya from all the three squads. Have a look at some of the tweets below.
Fans bat for Rohit!
Plz change tha captain.
— Dhiraj Sah (@pd_dhir) July 21, 2019
Hardik?
Where is @hardikpandya7?
— $hawn$haw🔊 (@living_soldier) July 21, 2019
Where are you?
Where is Hardik Pandya 🥺🥺
— H I T M A N (@Mambattiyan_) July 21, 2019
The Captain Game!
Virat is captain!! Very unfortunate
— Anonymous User (@Mr_loyal11) July 21, 2019
Fans Missing Hardik
Why not @hardikpandya7 😒
— Shubham🇮🇳 (@Shubham15090699) July 21, 2019
Hardik, Where Are You?
Why Hardik Pandya is not in the squad??
— TORNADO (@TORNADOASD) July 21, 2019
India and West Indies will face each in three T20s, three ODIs and two Test. The T20 series will be played first, followed by ODI and Test series. The tour will start on August 3, 2019, and end on September 16, 2019. The last bilateral series between India and West Indies was played in 2018. India had defeated West Indies in all the series comprising of T20, ODI and Test.
(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jul 21, 2019 02:57 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).