Produced by: Hitansh Gaur
Team India has reached the West Indies for a month-long tour this week. The first leg of the tour starts on July 12 with two test matches.
Team India is pulling out all the stops to prepare for the test matches after losing to Australia in WTC Final last month. The team, led by Rohit Sharma, has decided to play two intra-squad warm-up matches.
Team India played their first warm-up match on Wednesday and Thursday where Virat Kohli failed to make his mark as he was dismissed early on by Jaidev Unadkat. The former captain started well against Jadeja and Unadkat but soon got out after the left-arm seamer changed the angle. Kohli edged one to the slips while trying to make a shot outside the off-stump.
On the other hand, current skipper Rohit Sharma and youngster Yashasvi Jaiswal played some great shots to give a strong start to their team. Rohit smashed a six against a six while Yashasvi gave a stellar performance leading to speculation whether he will play at second or third in the opening test of the tour.
As the BCCI selectors decided to drop Cheteshwar Pujara from the Test squad for the series, the question on who will replace him remains. Till now, Shubman Gill has been opening the innings with captain Rohit Sharma. But now with Yashasvi Jaiswal in the mix, things might change and after a brilliant performance in the warm-up match Rohit Sharma might lean towards Yashasvi Jaiswal for the opening duties.
The Selectors Committee also rested Umesh Yadav and Mohammed Shami as Mukesh Kumar and Navdeep Saini got their chance to showcase their talent. Ruturaj Gaikwad has also been included in the Test squad.
The sixteen-member team for Tests led by Rohit Sharma includes – Shubman Gill, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Virat Kohli, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Ajinkya Rahane (VC), KS Bharat (wk), Ishan Kishan (wk), R Ashwin, R Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Axar Patel, Mohd. Siraj, Mukesh Kumar, Jaydev Unadkat and Navdeep Saini.
India will play two test matches with West Indies – 1st Test – July 12 to July 16, Windsor Park, 19:30 PM IST 2nd Test – July 20 to July 24, Queens Park, 19:30 PM IST
After the two Tests, India and West Indies will face each other in 3 ODIs and 5 T20 matches. The squads for the two formats have also been announced.
Jio Cinema will live stream India vs West Indies matches for free. There will be no live telecast of the series on television.