India will travel to West Indies for a full tour consisting of two Tests, three ODIs, and five T20I matches beginning in July and reports are suggesting that the squad for the Test series is more or less likely to remain the same with a few changes.
Indian team has a break after their WTC 2023 Final loss before flying to the Caribbean and the Test series against West Indies will be their first series in the 2023-25 World Test Championship cycle. However, reports have suggested that the BCCI selection committee is not going to make wholesale changes.
Most importantly, Rohit Sharma will continue to captain India in Tests.
"Every Test is important, and its result contributes to the World Test Championship (WTC) points table. We cannot experiment in a Test match," a source told Cricbuzz.
Four out of the top five batsmen - Rohit, Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, and Ajinkya Rahane - are certain to retain their places in the squad for the two Test matches in Dominica and Trinidad, but a question mark hangs over Cheteshwar Pujara.
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There will likely be discussions regarding India's longstanding No. 3, Pujara, who has scored only one century in 52 innings (28 Tests) since 2020 at a disappointing average of 29.69.
While he has registered 11 half-centuries, his average further drops to 26.31 when his scores of 90 and 102* in the Chittagong Test in December 2022 are excluded.
While it is not confirmed whether the 103 Tests veteran will be excluded from the Test squad, his position is nowhere tenable. Yashasvi Jaiswal is being looked at as a potential replacement for Pujara going forward.
However, there is near confirmation about resting the Indian pace attack leader Mohammad Shami, who has been playing non-stop cricket since the Border-Gavaskar Trophy at home, then he played 17 games in IPL 2023 and featured in the WTC 2023 final as well.
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Apart from him, Mohammed Siraj, who had partnered with Shami well, might also be rested as part of the workload management or might travel with the squad, but not be played to give him adequate rest.
In his place selectors might give a chance to Arshdeep Singh and Umran Malik.
KS Bharat, the Andhra keeper, who has played five Tests so far, is likely to retain his place. Sanju Samson, highly regarded for his abilities if not for consistency, may make a comeback in the ODI and T20I squads alongside Ishan Kishan.
(Cricbuzz inputs)
