Shikhar Dhawan dropped for West Indies Test series, Mayak, Siraj get maiden call-ups

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on Saturday announced Indian national team for the two-match Test series against West Indies. Opener Shikhar Dhawan, who had a poor run in England, has been dropped from the national side while Mayank Agarwal and Mohammed Siraj’s received maiden India call-up.

While Dhawan had a horror outing during the recent five-match Test series against England with just 162 runs in 8 innings, Mayank was the top scorer in the last Ranji Trophy season with 1160 runs in 8 matches.

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Bowlers Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Jasprit Bumrah were also rested and Mohammad Shami and Umesh Yadav will take the responsibility to lead the pace attack with no Ishant Sharma and Hardik Pandya.

“Taking stock of the recent workload, the selectors have decided to rest Jasprit Bumrah and Bhuvneshwar Kumar. Both Ishant Sharma and Hardik Pandya were not considered for selection, as they are yet to recover from their injuries,” BCCI acting secretary Amitabh Choudhary said in a statement.

In Dhawan’s absence, Mumbai’s Prithvi Shaw, who retained his place in the side after failing to make the playing XI in the last two Tests in England, could finally get a chance to open the innings with KL Rahul. Mayank, who is also enjoying a good run of form, is another option for one of the opening slots.

The first Test will be played at the Saurashtra Cricket Association Stadium in Rajkot from October 4 to 8 and the second match will be held at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad from October 12 to 16.

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The five-match ODI series will begin on October 21 at Guwahati, followed by the second ODI on October 24^th at Indore and third ODI at Pune on October 27^th. The final two one-dayers will be held at Mumbai and Thiruvananthapuram on October 29^th and November 1, respectively.

The one-dayers will be followed by the three T20 Internationals to be held at Kolkata (November 4), Lucknow (November 6) and Chennai (November 11).

India squad: Virat Kohli (captain), KL Rahul, Prithvi Shaw, Mayank Agarwal, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane (vice-captain), Hanuma Vihari, Rishabh Pant (wicket-keeper), R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Shami, Umesh Yadav, Mohammed Siraj, Shardul Thakur.