Rohit, Pant, Jadeja, and Hardik return as India take on West Indies in first T20I at Trinidad

After a clean sweep over West Indies in the ODIs, India will now take on the men in maroon in a five-match T20 series on 29 July, Friday. 

With less than three months left for the T20 World Cup, skipper Rohit Sharma and coach Rahul Dravid will get around 16 games (5 vs WI, 5 in Asia Cup (if India play the final), 3 vs Australia, 3 vs South Africa) to firm up their core team that will then play unchanged going into the mega event.

The mere thought of a first eleven comprising Rohit Sharma, Rishabh Pant, Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya and Dinesh Karthik as the five specialists batters in the top six can have an intimidating as well as a debilitating effect on the opposition.

And that too at a time when a player of Virat Kohli’s stature has been failing miserably in the shortest format and doubts are being cast about his place in the playing XI.

Boasting a few T20 specialists and hard-hitters, the hosts are likely to go with the same squad featuring such as Brandon King, Kyle Mayers, and Rovman Powell that beat Bangladesh 2-0 in the three-match series back home earlier this month.

The likes of Myers and skipper Pooran are also in good form with the bat, and that could give West Indies the right amount of confidence to give India a tough fight.

Full T20 Squads:

India: Rohit Sharma (C), Ishan Kishan, Shreyas Iyer, Deepak Hooda, Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya, Rishabh Pant, KL Rahul, Dinesh Karthik, Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Kuldeep Yadav, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Avesh Khan, Harshal Patel, Ravi Bishnoi, Axar Patel, Arshdeep Singh

West Indies (Probable): Nicholas Pooran (C), Shamarh Brooks, Brandon King, Rovman Powell, Keacy Carty, Kyle Mayers, Jason Holder, Gudakesh Motie, Keemo Paul, Shai Hope, Akeal Hosein, Alzarri Joseph, Jayden Seales

(Inputs PTI)

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