Dhoni not part of India T20I squads, Rohit to lead against WI

[[JUGRAJ SINGH]]

Rohit Sharma will lead India in the upcoming T20I series against the Windies with regular skipper Virat Kohli being rested for the three matches against the Caribbean side. Kohli, though, will be back to captain the team in the three-match T20I series against Australia which begins 10 days after the Windies series comes to an end in November.

MS Dhoni isn't part of both the T20I squads, with Rishabh Pant named as the wicketkeeper by the MSK Prasad-led selection panel, which met in Pune on Friday (October 21). Dinesh Karthik is the other wicketkeeping option available for India for both the T20I series.

India squad for West Indies T20Is: Rohit Sharma (c), Shikhar Dhawan, KL Rahul, Dinesh Karthik, Manish Pandey, Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant (wk), Krunal Pandya, Washington Sundar, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah, Khaleel Ahmed, Umesh Yadav, Shahbaz Nadeem

India squad for Australia T20Is: Virat Kohli (c), Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, KL Rahul, Shreyas Iyer, Manish Pandey, Dinesh Karthik, Rishabh Pant (wk), Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Washington Sundar, Krunal Pandya, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah, Umesh Yadav, Khaleel Ahmed

This will be Rohit's third full series as T20I captain, having led the team earlier in the T20I series against Sri Lanka at home in 2017 followed by the Nidahas Trophy in Sri Lanka in 2018. Rohit had also captained in the ODI series against Sri Lanka in 2017 and the recently-concluded Asia Cup, with India winning all series under his captaincy.

Shahbaz Nadeem's long wait for an India call up has come to an end as the 29-year-old Jharkhand left-arm spinner has been included for the T20I series against the Windies. Nadeem, who recently finished as the highest wicket-taker in the Vijay Hazare Trophy - India's List A competition - with 24 wickets at an average of 13.04 and an economy of 3.86, however doesn't make the cut for the Australia T20Is, with his exclusion for the Australia games and Kohli's inclusion for the same being the only distinction between the two T20I squads.

Krunal Pandya, who was part of the India T20I squads for the last two series, has retained his place while Washington Sundar returns to the squad after an ankle injury forced him to return abruptly from Ireland. With the presence of Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal, India have as many as five spinners for the Windies series while they'll go with four for the Australia T20Is.

Suresh Raina, Deepak Chahar and Siddarth Kaul are the ones to miss out from India's previous T20I squad which took on England while Hardik Pandya, who's recovering from a back injury, also misses out. Shreyas Iyer, meanwhile, has been recalled to the team following a successful outing in the Vijay Hazare tournament, where he scored 373 runs in six innings at an average of 93.25, including two hundreds and two fifties.

India's first T20I against the Windies is scheduled to be played on November 4 in Kolkata, followed by matches in Lucknow and Chennai on November 6 and November 11 respectively.

India's tour of Australia gets underway with the first T20I to be played in Brisbane on November 21. The Melbourne Cricket Ground will host the second T20I on November 23 followed by the third and final T20I on November 25 at the Sydney Cricket Ground. India then play four Tests and three ODIs, with their Australian tour coming to an end on January 18, 2019.