Rahul had tested positive for COVID-19 at NCA and was advised rest.
Sanju Samson's hopes to find a spot in India's T20 World Cup 2022 squad have received a big boost as he has been asked to stay on with the national squad for the five-match T20I series against West Indies in the Caribbean and USA.
Sanju has replaced KL Rahul in the squad, who failed to recover in time after testing positive for COVID-19 while training at the NCA.
While there is no official confirmation yet, BCCI's website confirms the same as Samson's name is listed in the squad on the match scorecard of the first T20I, which will be played later today (July 29).
WI v IND 2022: Shimron Hetmyer recalled as West Indies names 16-man squad for T20I series
KL Rahul had tested positive for the coronavirus about a week ago, and reports suggested the BCCI medical team asked him to rest a week extra. The vice-captain of the Indian team underwent a surgery for sports hernia last month and missed the England tour and the West Indies ODIs.
He was named in the T20I squad subject to fitness. It is expected he will now make his comeback with the three ODIs in Zimbabwe next month.
Dropping Kohli would be a blunder; Dravid, Rohit should talk to him- Saba Karim
Samson, in the meantime, did no harm to his chances in the limited opportunities, scoring a 77 in a T20I in Ireland and 12, 54, and 6* in the three ODIs against West Indies while batting at number 5 and keeping wickets.
The five-match T20I series kick starts on Friday, with the remaining matches to be played on August 1, 2, 6, and 7 - with the final two games set to be played in Florida.
India T20I squad for West Indies series:
Rohit Sharma (c), Rishabh Pant (wk), Deepak Hooda, Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Akshar Patel, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Arshdeep Singh, Ravi Bishnoi, Harshal Patel, Ravichandran Ashwin, Shreyas Iyer, Kuldeep Yadav, Avesh Khan, Ishan Kishan, Sanju Samson.