India's squad for the five-match T20I series against West Indies has a young look. Veterans like Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and Ravindra Jadeja did not find a place in the squad while the likes of Yashasvi Jaiswal and Tilak Varma got their maiden T20I callups. The indication of the BCCI selctors, led by newly-appointed head of the panel Ajit Agarkar, is clear that they want to test the youngsters in the shortest formats.
Hardik Pandya will be leading the side in the five-match contest, while Suryakumar Yadav will be his deputy. Varma has been a notable member of the Mumbai Indians side for the past two seasons and with a strike-rate of 142-plus in 47 games, batting at No 5 has obviously attracted the national selection panel's attention. Jaiswal, on the other hand, recently earned his maiden Test call-up for the West Indies series.
Apart from Jaiswal, Ishan Kishan and Shubman Gill are the other openers in the side. Sanju Samson along with Kishan are the wicketkeeping options. Suryakumar and Pandya are the two senior-most players in the side. The selectors have also gone ahead with four spinners - Axar Patel, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Ravi Bishnoi - and four pacers -Arshdeep Singh, Umran Malik, Avesh Khan, Mukesh Kumar.
Commenting on the team selection, former India opener Aakash Chopra made an interesting observation.
"Nowadays, when you got to West Indies you pack your side with spinners as players There are four options in spin-bowling - Yuzi (Yuzvendra) Chahal and Ravi Bishnoi being the leg-spinners while Axar Patel and Kuldeep Yadav are the left-arm spinning Axar Patel will be ahead in this race because Ravindra Jadeja's name is not there. I am assuming it is part of workload management," Aakash Chopra said on his YouTube channel.
"There shouldn't be any question marks over Ravindra Jadeja in terms of T20Is, just my thought. He will play Tests and ODIs as well. So you say that he can rest a little. You should play Axar Patel and then you have got other spinning options as well. So that could be the thinking."