"Well played BCCI" - Shocked fans question Virat Kohli and Sanju Samson's exclusion from India's T20I squad for West Indies series

Virat Kohli (L) and Sanju Samson. (P.C.:BCCI)

Team India have rested big names like Virat Kohli, Jasprit Bumrah, and Yuzvendra Chahal for the T20I series against West Indies. On Thursday, The BCCI announced an 18-man squad for the three-match series, which will be played in the Caribbean, with Rohit Sharma leading the team.

India also seem to have made their intentions pretty clear about who they are looking at with respect to the T20 World Cup in about three months' time.

They require an off-spinning option and that's probably what has brought Ravichandran Ashwin back into India's T20I setup. Kuldeep Yadav and KL Rahul, who were both ruled out of the T20I series against the Proteas due to injury, have been included in the squad.

However, their availability will be subject to fitness, the BCCI said on their official Twitter handle.

Sanju Samson, who scored 77 in the last T20I he played, is a notable exclusion from the squad as is Rahul Tripathi. The latter didn't get an opportunity to play despite making the squad against Ireland. Speedster Umran Malik too couldn't hold onto his place after a poor outing against England.

Fans on Twitter were baffled to see some of the exclusions made by the BCCI. They slammed the board for their lack of transparency with respect to selecting the likes of Shreyas Iyer over Kohli and Samson.

One fan wrote:

"Well played @BCCI. One thing is almost clear that Sanju won't be there in the plane to Australia despite doing nothing wrong."

Another user tweeted:

"Calling this a rest for Virat Kohli is a farce. What is the official message? Or is there even one?"

Here are some more reactions to the news:

---

India's squad for the T20Is vs West Indies

The BCCI announced the squad for the series against the West Indies with the following tweet:

"Rohit Sharma (C), I Kishan, KL Rahul*, Suryakumar Yadav, D Hooda, S Iyer, D Karthik, R Pant, H Pandya, R Jadeja, Axar Patel, R Ashwin, R Bishnoi, Kuldeep Yadav*, B Kumar, Avesh Khan, Harshal Patel, Arshdeep Singh. *Inclusion of KL Rahul & Kuldeep Yadav is subject to fitness."

The likes of Arshdeep Singh and Deepak Hooda are likely to play in all games with some of the big names absent. They have a golden opportunity to make a strong case and seal a berth in India's T20 World Cup squad.