Ahead of the T20I series against West Indies, India’s white-ball skipper Rohit Sharma said the Men in Blue would look to give games to everyone in the squad as part of preparations for the T20 World Cup later this year.

The three-T20I series between India and West Indies is slated to get underway on February 16 at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata.

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"Yeah, the idea is to identify the players who are going to play the World Cup, try and give them game time. There are a lot of players who are injured, come the World Cup, I do not know who is going to be fit, so we just have to get everyone ready for any situation,” Rohit said in the virtual press conference on Tuesday (February 15).

"We have a very packed schedule and injuries are bound to happen, it is important that we give guys who are going to fill those roles, enough gametime. It is important that we use this series and the next series that will follow after this, to our good potential and see whoever are likely to have, what they can offer us," he added.

Commenting on Hardik Pandya who is out of the white-ball set-up after the T20 World Cup due to fitness issues, Rohit said: "Hardik Pandya is an important player, he brings three skills to the table. We have not had a discussion on whether he can play as pure batter or not. It is about everyone being available. Since the T20 World Cup, we have had injuries. The important thing is to get everyone available, once they are available, we will look at the second step."

"The door is open for everyone, we do not make decisions quickly, we want to go with the right combination because, in Australia, you will get different conditions. You will require different skillsets there, we want to prepare accordingly and we want to cover all the bases," he added.

India squad for West Indies T20I series:

Rohit Sharma (captain), Ishan Kishan, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Surya Kumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant, Venkatesh Iyer, Deepak Chahar, Shardul Thakur, Ravi Bishnoi, Yuzvendra Chahal, Washington Sundar, Mohammed Siraj, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Avesh Khan, Harshal Patel, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Deepak Hooda

(With ANI inputs)