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.
Former captain Kohli has endured a lean run of form across formats and is without a century in international cricket since November 2019.
The Indian cricket board (BCCI), which rarely explains team selection, did not specify if Kohli had been dropped or rested. Bumrah, currently the top-ranked ODI bowler, has likely been rested considering the workload of 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. Kohli, currently with the ODI squad in England, 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. “He himself knows by his own standards it has not been good and I see him coming back and doing well,” Ganguly told Reuter’s partner ANI.
“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.
