Hardik Pandya To Lead India vs WI; Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli Rested - Reports
Hardik Pandya is being groomed as next India's T20I captain [Twitter]
India's white-ball season gets underway when they tour West Indies for a full-fledged tour in July 2023. The series will consist of two Tests, three One-Day Internationals (ODI), and as many T20Is. As reported by Times Now, the selectors will rope in youngsters for the T20I series, which will be led by Hardik Pandya, who has been India's stand-in T20I captain since the ICC T20 World Cup 2022.
Seniors like Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli will focus solely on ODI cricket, with one eye on World Cup 2023 later this year in India. ICC's No.1 Ranked T20I batter Suryakumar Yadav is most likely to be Pandya's deputy.
Sanju Samson, too, could find himself out of favour, given a string of poor scores in IPL for Rajasthan Royals (RR).
Pandya's record as India's T20I captain is exceptional, winning eight, losing two, and one match ending in a tie. Under Pandya, India's last T20I series win came against New Zealand in January-February 2023.
Several top performers in the recently concluded Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 could find their way into the T20I side. Young batters like Yashasvi Jaiswal, Jitesh Sharma, and Rinku Singh made the most noise in the IPL and made their impact felt.
Amongst the bowlers, Mohit Sharma and Tushar Deshpande could find themselves in the reckoning as well, after an impressive season for Gujarat Titans (GT) and Chennai Super Kings (CSK), respectively.
Arshdeep Singh, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, and Shivam Mavi are expected to keep their place in the squad.
India's likely T20I squad
Hardik Pandya (c), Suryakumar Yadav (vc), Shubman Gill, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Rahul Tripathi, Rinku Singh, Jitesh Sharma, Washington Sundar, Shivam Mavi, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Arshdeep Singh, Mohit Sharma, Tushar Deshpande
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