Virat Kohli decides against rest to secure captaincy
Indian skipper to lead in all T20, One-day and Test series in West Indies
Dubai: Virat Kohli has decided not to take rest and will lead India during the upcoming West Indies tour in the three match Twenty20 Internationals, two One-day Internationals and two Test series against the West Indies.
After the hectic and intense World Cup campaign, many had believed that the Indian skipper might skip the first pasrt of the series. However, after Indian lost in the semifinal, there was a buzz about Rohit Sharma likely to be considered as captain for the limited over teams. The reason for such a move is that despite Kohli being a consistent batsman hasn’t won any major ICC tournament for India and it was time Sharma is given the reigns.
India is among the few teams in the world which has a single captain for all formats of the game and Sharma, who is the most successful captain in the Indian Premier League, emerged as a strong candidate.
Soon after India’s 18-run defeat to New Zealand in the semifinal, reports also surfaced of an alleged rift between Kohli and Sharma and that there is also a Kohli camp and a Sharma camp in the Indian team. Under these circumstance, Kohli knew that he, by resting for the West Indies series can lead to serious consequences over his control in the team and future as captain.
The apparent reason given for the delay in announcing the Indian team on Friday was a directive from the supreme court appointed Committee of Administrators (CoA) that run the BCCI stating that the Secretary of the BCCI will no longer convene selection meetings and that the chairpersons of the respective selection committees will from now on convene the meetings leading to many formalities to be completed. It is now clear that the delay was due to selectors wanting a confirmation from leading players like Kohli and Mahendra Singh Dhoni on their availability for the tour. While Kohli expressed his availability, Dhoni announced that he would take a two months rest.
Only after the confirmation could selectors go ahead in naming the wicketkeepers. Rishab Pant has been named wickeeper for T20 and One day series while Wriddhiman Saha and Pant could be together named as wicketkeepers for the Test series. There as talk about Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Mohammed Shami being rested but only Jasprit Bumrah has now been rested for the limited over series. Pacer Khaleel Ahmad has found a place in the limited over teams while Manish Pandey and Shreyas Iyers after their fine show for India A has been included in the limited over teams probably to strengthen the middle order which got exposed during the semifinal against New Zealand and was touted as the reason for India not emerging as the World Cup champions.
Indian team
India’s squad for 3 T20Is: Virat Kohli (Captain), Rohit Sharma (VC), Shikhar Dhawan, KL Rahul, Shreyas Iyer, Manish Pandey, Rishabh Pant (WK), Krunal Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Washington Sundar, Rahul Chahar, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Khaleel Ahmed, Deepak Chahar, Navdeep Saini
India’s squad for 3 ODIs: Virat Kohli (Captain), Rohit Sharma (VC), Shikhar Dhawan, KL Rahul, Shreyas Iyer, Manish Pandey, Rishabh Pant (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kedar Jadhav, , Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Khaleel Ahmed, Navdeep Saini
India’s squad for 2 Tests: Virat Kohli (Captain), Ajinkya Rahane (VC), Mayank Agarwal, KL Rahul, C Pujara, Hanuma Vihari, Rohit Sharma, Rishabh Pant (WK) Wriddhiman Saha (WK), R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Ishant Sharma, Mohammed Shami, Jasprit Bumrah, Umesh Yadav