Is Virat Kohli dropped: The former Indian captain isn’t part of an 18-member T20I squad for West Indies tour.
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The All-India Senior Selection Committee has announced an 18-member T20I squad for the tour of West Indies. Expected to announce the squad for a few days now, an afternoon announcement is rare for the Indian selectors nowadays.
The selectors have made a total of four changes to the squad which had played the second and third T20Is against England last week. Former captain Virat Kohli, spinner Yuzvendra Chahal and fast bowlers Jasprit Bumrah and Umran Malik have been replaced by batter KL Rahul, spinners Ravichandran Ashwin and Kuldeep Yadav and fast bowler Arshdeep Singh.
Ashwin, 35, who had make a T20I comeback after four years during the ICC T20 World Cup 2021, has been handed another opportunity before the ICC T20 World Cup 2022. Readers must note that Ashwin had picked just 12 wickets in 17 Indian Premier League 2022 matches. Additionally, frequent batting promotions had seen him scoring 191 runs at a strike rate of 141.48 for Rajasthan Royals.
Rahul and Yadav, on the other hand, had been included after missing a five-match T20I series against South Africa at home right after IPL 2022 and England tour due to a right groin and hand injury respectively. The pair’s availability is subject to them recovering well in time to board the plane from India.
Is Virat Kohli dropped from India squad for West Indies T20 2022?
Proving the news doing the rounds in the Indian media as correct, selectors have rested Kohli, Chahal and Bumrah for the T20I series in West Indies.
Kohli, in particular, is also being assumed to have been dropped from the squad due to poor form. While a section of fans believe this to be the reality, the 33-year old player appears like having received a rest for no particular reason.
A primary reason behind these contradicting speculations erupting around Kohli is the selectors’ continued absence from participating in press conferences like pre-Covid times. A news as huge as leaving out Kohli deserves a response/explanation from the selectors to avoid all types of murmurs in the media.
IND vs WI T20 squad 2022
Rohit Sharma (c), Ishan Kishan, KL Rahul*, Suryakumar Yadav, Deepak Hooda, Shreyas Iyer, Dinesh Karthik, Rishabh Pant, Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravi Bishnoi, Kuldeep Yadav*, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Avesh Khan, Harshal Patel, Arshdeep Singh.
* – Availability subject to fitness.
