Team India suffered a big blow before the first ODI match against West Indies. Recently, when the BCCI announced an 18-member squad for the ODI and T20I series against West Indies, the BCCI had mentioned that KL Rahul will be available for the series from the second match onwards.
KL Rahul, who led the Indian cricket team in the ODI series against South Africa last month, will return back to the team to focus only on his batting as team India would look forward to putting behind the embarrassing result against the Proteas and start afresh as Rohit Sharma will be seen leading team India in his full-time assignment as India’s new white-ball captain.
Meanwhile, stylish opener Mayank Agarwal has been added to India’s ODI squad due to KL Rahul’s unavailability in the squad. It was also confirmed that the batting trio of Shikhar Dhawan, Shreyas Iyer, and Ruturaj Gaikwad would be missing the three 50-over matches against West Indies as they have tested positive for COVID-19.
Now, the big question is why is KL Rahul missing from India’s squad for the 1st ODI match? Well, according to several media reports, the Indian vice-captain is out of the first ODI match because of a family engagement. As per a report by ESPNCricinfo, the reason why KL Rahul hasn’t joined the Indian squad in Ahmedabad as he will be occupied with his sister’s wedding.
India ODI Squad
Rohit Sharma (c), Ruturaj Gaikwad, Shikhar Dhawan, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Shreyas Iyer, Deepak Hooda, Washington Sundar, KL Rahul, Rishabh Pant, Deepak Chahar, Shardul Thakur, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Ravi Bishnoi, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, Avesh Khan.
India T20I Squad
Rohit Sharma (c), Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, Suryakumar Yadav, Venkatesh Iyer, Washington Sundar, Axar Patel, KL Rahul, Ishan Kishan, Rishabh Pant, Deepak Chahar, Shardul Thakur, Ravi Bishnoi, Yuzvendra Chahal, Mohammed Siraj, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Avesh Khan, Harshal Patel.
