Shikhar Dhawan to lead India in ODIs against West Indies; Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and Jasprit Bumrah rested

Veteran batter Shikhar Dhawan has been named India’s captain for the three-match ODI series to be played in the West Indies later in the month. All-rounder Ravindra Jadeja has been picked as vice-captain for the series.

In a rather surprising move, regular skipper Rohit Sharma and out-of-form senior batter Virat Kohli have been rested again. Pacer Jasprit Bumrah, who led India in the Birmingham Test against England, all-rounder Hardik Pandya and keeper-batter Rishabh Pant have also been given a breather for the one-day series in West Indies.

All the players are currently in England. Having lost the rescheduled Test, Team India will now take on the hosts in three T20Is and as many ODIs.

The one-day series against the Windies will begin on July 22 in Port of Spain, Trinidad. The remaining two matches will be played at the same venue on July 24 and July 27. The ODIs will be followed by five T20Is, which will be held from July 29 to August 7.

The one-day series in West Indies will be Dhawan’s second stint as the stand-in Indian captain within a year. In July 2021, he led a second-string team in Sri Lanka, where India played three ODIs and three T20Is. India won the one-dayers 2-1, but lost the T20Is by the same margin after a number of their players were in isolation due to COVID-19.

Ironically, Dhawan was dropped from the T20I squad after the Sri Lanka series and hasn't played a match for India in the format since. He, however, remains a key component of the one-day team.

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India’s squad for West Indies ODIs

Shikhar Dhawan (captain), Ravindra Jadeja (vice-captain), Ruturaj Gaikwad, Shubman Gill, Deepak Hooda, Suryakumar Yadav, Shreyas Iyer, Ishan Kishan (wk), Sanju Samson (wk), Shardul Thakur, Yuzvendra Chahal, Axar Patel, Avesh Khan, Prasidh Krishna, Mohd Siraj, Arshdeep Singh.