India will be taking on Windies in three ODIs and T20Is next month. The squads for the same were announced on Wednesday. Here are the players to watch out for in the ODIs.
After an unimpressive tour of South Africa, India has switched focus to its upcoming home limited-overs series against the Windies, starting February 6. There will be three One-Day Internationals (ODIs) and three Twenty20 Internationals (T20Is). The squads for the same have been announced while we look at the players who could impact the ODIs.
Rohit Sharma
It would be Rohit's first outing as the full-time skipper in ODIs. Moreover, he is coming off a hamstring niggle that forced him to miss the SA tour. Although a class player, he will hardly take any time to get back into the groove. It would be interesting to see how he handles the captaincy duties at the international level, despite having tons of experience in the domestic circuit, especially in the Indian Premier League (IPL), winning five titles while leading Mumbai Indians (MI).
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KL Rahul
The wicketkeeper-opener and the vice-captain had a challenging tour to Proteas. In the ODI leg, he failed to fire, while he couldn't handle the captaincy duties well enough, losing 0-3 in the three-match series. Nevertheless, now that the primary leadership duties rely on Rohit, Rahul can focus on his batting for the time being and is expected to fire, besides entertaining the fans as usual with his exquisite stroke-making.
Virat Kohli
The former Indian skipper was partially impressive during the South Africa ODIs, scoring 50-plus on a couple of occasions. However, over two years, he has been without an international century. Also, with this being his first home ODI series since being relieved of the captaincy duties, this could be his best chance to have a shot at ending the drought.
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Kuldeep Yadav
The chinaman has lost his charm over the years. However, he turns out to be a surprise recall to the side for the ODIs. Notably, having failed in IPL 2021, he did not feature Uttar Pradesh in the Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 Trophy or Vijay Hazare Trophy this season. Not sure what the selectors had in mind, but it will be fascinating to see if he gets the chance in the playing XI, or will it be more of a learning stint for him.
India squad for Windies home series:
ODIs: Rohit Sharma (c), KL Rahul (vc & wk), Ruturaj Gaikwad, Shikhar Dhawan, Virat Kohli, Surya Kumar Yadav, Shreyas Iyer, Deepak Hooda, Rishabh Pant (wk), Deepak Chahar, Shardul Thakur, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Washington Sundar, Ravi Bishnoi, Mohd. Siraj, Prasidh Krishna and Avesh Khan.
T20Is: Rohit Sharma (c), KL Rahul (vc & wk), Ishan Kishan (wk), Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Surya Kumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant (wk), Venkatesh Iyer, Deepak Chahar, Shardul Thakur, Ravi Bishnoi, Axar Patel, Yuzvendra Chahal, Washington Sundar, Mohd. Siraj, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Avesh Khan and Harshal Patel.