Kohli to lead India in Windies tour; Dhawan back, Chahar to debut

Shikhar Dhawan made a comeback to India’s limited overs squad after recovering from a thumb fracture while rookie leg-spinner Rahul Chahar is the only new face across three formats for the upcoming West Indies tour, BCCI chief selector MSK Prasad announced here, on Sunday.

Skipper Virat Kohli will lead India in all three formats while Mahendra Singh Dhoni, who has taken a two-month break, won’t be part of the team.

Another notable inclusion was veteran keeper-batsman Wriddhiman Saha, who is back in the Test squad after undergoing a shoulder surgery to recover from an injury sustained during the 2018 IPL. Saha last played a Test match in South Africa back in January 2018.

Rajasthan leg-spinner Rahul Chahar has been rewarded for his consistent show in the IPL and domestic cricket with a berth in the Twenty20 squad. He is the cousin of seamer Deepak Chahar, who is also in the T20 squad.

From the World Cup squad, the prominent player to be dropped is Dinesh Karhik while Hardik Pandya and Jasprit Bumrah have been rested as a part of workload management programme.

India’s squad for three T20Is: 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

ODIs: 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

Tests: 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.