Amid intense speculation over his future, MS Dhoni is not travelling with the India squad to the West Indies. Chief selector MSK Prasad said the wicketkeeper-batsman is “unavailable” for the tour.
Jasprit Bumrah and Hardik Pandya have been rested from the white-ball leg of the tour, and the latter isn’t part of the Test squad either.
The Test squad is largely along expected lines, with Wriddhiman Saha making his return after a year out injured as one of two wicketkeepers alongside Rishabh Pant. R Ashwin, who hasn’t played international cricket since the Adelaide Test in December 2018, and missed the rest of the Australia Tests with a side strain, is part of a three-member spin contingent alongside Ravindra Jadeja and Kuldeep Yadav.
The white-ball squads include a pair of uncapped players. Fast bowler Navdeep Saini has found a place in both the ODI and T20I squads, and legspinner Rahul Chahar has earned a call-up to the T20I squad. Middle-order batsmen Shreyas Iyer and Manish Pandey, and left-arm seamer Khaleel Ahmed, have also been recalled to the ODI squad, with Dinesh Karthik, who was India’s reserve keeper at the World Cup, missing out.
Shikhar Dhawan, who left the World Cup midway with a broken thumb, has recovered fully and is back in the ODI and T20I squads. However Vijay Shankar, who suffered a toe fracture during the tournament, is still not back to full fitness.
Since the World Cup, intense debate has swirled around Dhoni’s place in the side, with plenty of speculation over whether he should retire. Prasad refused to get drawn into this, and didn’t specify any reason for Dhoni’s unavailability. Media reports in the lead-up to the selection said that Dhoni had opted out of the tour to spend the better part of two months with the Parachute Regiment of the Indian army, where he has the rank of honorary Lieutenant Colonel.
“Retirement is purely individual. A legendary cricketer like MS Dhoni, he knows when to retire,” Prasad said. “I don’t think we need to discuss anything on it, because first of all he’s not available. Second, we have already started grooming some youngsters.”
Test squad: Mayank Agarwal, KL Rahul, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli (capt), Ajinkya Rahane, Hanuma Vihari, Rohit Sharma, Rishabh Pant (wk), Wriddhiman Saha (wk), R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Ishant Sharma, Mohammed Shami, Jasprit Bumrah, Umesh Yadav
ODI squad: Virat Kohli (capt), Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, KL Rahul, Shreyas Iyer, Manish Pandey, Rishabh Pant (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kedar Jadhav, Mohammed Shami, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Khaleel Ahmed, Navdeep Saini
T20I squad Virat Kohli (capt), Rohit Sharma, 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
More to follow…