No Kohli or Bumrah in India's T20 squad for Windies
Batsman Virat Kohli and seamer Jasprit Bumrah have been left out of India's Twenty20 squad for the team's five-match tour of West Indies beginning later this month, the country's cricket board said on Thursday.
India has named their T20 squad to face the West Indies in a five-match T20 series scheduled to start on July 29.
Former captain Kohli has endured a lean run of form across formats and has been without a century in international cricket since November 2019. The Indian cricket board (BCCI) did not specify if Kohli had been dropped or rested.
The BCCI did not specify for top-ranked ODI bowler Bumrah either. Reuters notes, however, that he had endured a heavy workload recently as India's all-format pace spearhead.
Batsman KL Rahul and spinner Kuldeep Yadav were selected in the Rohit Sharma-led squad subject to their fitness.
Currently, with the ODI squad in England, Kohli missed Tuesday's series opener with a groin injury.
With a number of in-form batsmen pushing for a top-order berth, Kohli's place in the Twenty20 squad has been questioned, especially ahead of this year's World Cup in Australia.
Former coach Ravi Shastri has advised Kohli to take a break from the game and return rejuvenated.
BCCI president Sourav Ganguly has backed the 33-year-old to regain his form, speaking to Reuter's partner ANI.
"He himself knows by his own standards it has not been good, and I see him coming back and doing well," Ganguly said.
"But he has got to find his way and become successful, which he has been for the last 12-13 years or more, and only Virat Kohli can do that."
India T20 squad: Rohit Sharma (captain), 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.
(Reuters)
