Yashasvi Jaiswal and Tilak Varma have been rewarded for their brilliant outings in the Indian Premier League (IPL) as they were included in the Indian T20I squad for the five-match series against West Indies in the Caribbean.
Jaiswal is already in the Indian Test squad for the West Indies tour.
The five-match T20I series starts at Brian Lara Cricket Academy, Tarouba on August 3. Guyana will stage the second and third T20Is on August 6 and August 8 respectively. The T20I series concludes in Lauderhill, Florida with a blockbuster weekend of back-to-back matches on August 12 and August 13 at Broward County Cricket Stadium.
Hardik Pandya will continue to lead the T20I team with Suryakumar Yadav as his deputy. Senior pros like Rohit Sharma, Ravindra Jadeja, and Virat Kohli have not been included in this squad as the selection committee headed by new chief Ajit Agarkar continues to give fresh faces chances.
Ishan Kishan and Sanju Samson have been named as the wicketkeepers in the squad, while Shubman Gill is the opener.
Coming to the bowling unit, Akshar Patel, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, and Ravi Bishnoi have been picked in the spin department.
The fast-bowling unit is a bit inexperienced with Arshdeep Singh, Avesh Khan, Umran Malik, and Mukesh Kumar being named in the squad.
Among those to have missed the cut are Ruturaj Gaikwad, Deepak Hooda, Rahul Tripathi, Jitesh Sharma, Washington Sundar, and Prithvi Shaw. Also, a surprise miss from the squad was Rinku Singh, who had an amazing outing for KKR in IPL 2023, including his record feat of five sixes in five balls.
India T20I squad:
Ishan Kishan (wk), Shubman Gill, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Tilak Varma, Suryakumar Yadav (VC), Sanju Samson (wk), Hardik Pandya (C), Axar Patel, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Ravi Bishnoi, Arshdeep Singh, Umran Malik, Avesh Khan, Mukesh Kumar
