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After several delays and speculations of a split captaincy, India’s squad for the tour of West Indies was finally announced a week back with the selectors mainly focussing on youngsters. Players such as Shreyas Iyer, Rahul and Deepak Chahar, Navdeep Saini and Washington Sundar were all included. Emphasis was also put on rebuilding the squad and look forward to taking one step more in the 2023 World Cup at home four years later. India play West Indies in three T20s in the United States before facing them in three ODIs and two Test matches in the Caribbean. 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.
Meanwhile, several senior players like skipper Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma, who were rumoured to have asked for a break after a gruelling 2019 Cricket World Cup, were also included in all the three squads for the West Indies tour. MS Dhoni, however, withdrew from the tour to join and train with his parachute military regiment in the Indian army. With him opting out, Rishabh Pant goes to West Indies as the first-choice wicket-keeper in all three formats and will be hoping to seal his place in the Indian team. Take a look at some other batsmen to watch out for in the West Indies tour. India vs West Indies Head-to-Head Record in T20Is, Ahead of T20 Series, Here Are Match Results of Last 5 IND vs WI Twenty20 Encounters!
Shreyas Iyer
He recently spoke about how lack of regular opportunities and continuous run in the senior Indian team has hurt his chances of being a regular India player. Critics and fans alike have spoken in similar lines in the past especially after India’s middle-order failed miserably in the 2019 Cricket World Cup. Shreyas Iyer led Delhi Capitals to the playoffs last season after a long gap in the Indian Premier League (IPL) and has been providing the goods in the Indian domestic circuit.
Just recently, Iyer captained the India A team to 4-1 ODI series triumph over India and scored 210 runs at an average of 42. He has been scoring run in plenty in the Ranji Trophy and might just be India’s solution to the contentious no 4 positions in the middle order. Can he prove himself in the Carribean and seal his place? Time will tell. India vs West Indies 2019: 5 Records & Stats You Need to Know Ahead of the IND vs WI T20I Series.
Virat Kohli
The Indian skipper doesn’t have to prove himself to anyone. He leads the batting charts in the ICC Test and ODI rankings for batsmen and has been India’s best batter for quite some time now. But Kohli failed to score a single century at CWC 2019 despite recording five consecutive 50s.
Moreover, the rumoured rift with his deputy Rohit Sharma and talks of the BCCI sacking him as the ODI captain and handing over the reins to Rohit will have unsettled him. The West Indies may just be the perfect place to shed off everything and get back to the stellar form he is used to.
Rishabh Pant
India’s next big thing. The player, who could replace MS Dhoni and prodigious talent. Rishabh Pant has gotten used to such phrases in the short international career he has experienced so far. But performances have not justified those statements. There is no doubt about his potential and the destructive talent he possesses but Pant is yet to show it in the bigger stage. The 21-year-old wicketkeeper-batsman has been sensational for Delhi Capitals in the IPL and for India A teams but has struggled to get going in the international arena.
But now MS Dhoni inching towards retirement, Pant is the automatic first-choice for the wicket-keeper’s role. It should calm him down and bring the best out of the young cricketer that the world had for so long been waiting to see. If he has it his way, West Indies tour might be the start of something big in Indian cricket.
Many other batsmen such as Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan and KL Rahul will also be eager to kick-start a new campaign with runs. While Rohit had been phenomenal in CWC 2019 and scripted several records, news of his rift with Kohli and disagreement with head coach Ravi Shastri will surely have put Rohit on the line. He will want to keep scoring runs to keep others shut.
(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jul 29, 2019 03:31 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).
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