India Include Uncapped Rishabh Pant And Kuldeep Yadav For West Indies Tour

Team India has included the uncapped duo of Rishabh Pant and Kuldeep Yadav in the 15-man squad for the upcoming limited-overs tour of West Indies, which consists of five One-Day International followed by a solitary  T20 International. Opening batsman Rohit Sharma and fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah are the only two players in India’s Champions Trophy squad who will not travel to the Caribbeans. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) also confirmed that the administrative staff of the team will continue for the upcoming series, which means head coach Anil Kumble will be at the helm for at least one more series.

Rishabh Pant was not included in the Champions Trophy squad even after an impressive outing in the domestic season and the Indian Premier League but his inclusion in the five-man shortlist for the eight-team tournament was a big indication that he was close to getting his maiden call for the ODIs.  The left-handed batsman, who had caught the attention after scoring 267 runs in 6 innings at an average of 44.50 in last year’s U-19 World Cup, had become the talk of the town after blasting a belligerent 308 off 326 balls against Maharashtra in Ranji Trophy last year. He followed it up with a 48-ball hundred against Jharkhand, one of the fastest first-class centuries by an Indian as he finished Ranji Trophy with a staggering 972 runs in only 8 outings including four centuries and a couple of the fifties. He was rewarded for the brilliant show in domestic circuit in the form of a maiden call for India’s T20I team during the home series against England.

Kuldeep, who was also a part of the 5-man shortlist for the Champions Trophy, is also reaping the reward for a fine show in the domestic season where he had taken an impressive 35 wickets in 8 games for Uttar Pradesh. Earlier this year, he had made his Test debut against Australia in Dharamsala and had played an integral part in India’s series-clinching win. He was also instrumental in Kolkata Knight Riders journey to the playoffs of this year’s IPL, picking up 12 wickets in as many matches. Kuldeep was a part of the India team that had played a five-match ODI series against West Indies at home in 2014 but had not played a single match.

Meanwhile, there is still no place for Suresh Raina in the team even after he had enjoyed a good outing in the IPL, scoring 442 runs in 14 matches. Amit Mishra and Yuzvendra Chahal have been overlooked too while KL Rahul is also not a part of the team as he is recovering from a shoulder injury.

India’s Squad:

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

Fixtures: