After a disappointing display in the South Africa tour, Team India will take on West Indies at home in three ODI matches and two T20 Matches.
This will be Rohit Sharma’s first ODI series as the newly appointed permanent captain. The Hitman missed the South Africa tour due to an unforeseen hamstring injury but after a month of rigorous training, he has now fully recovered and has also cleared the fitness test. According to reports, the captain had a meeting with the selection committee today at 4 pm.
After the meeting, it is being rumored that two more players (alongside Rohit himself) who were out injured for so many days, will make a comeback in India’s squad for the West Indies series. Those two players are Ravindra Jadeja (source: Telegraph) and Hardik Pandya (source: PTI) respectively.
Ravindra Jadeja was a part of India’s squad in the two-match test series against New Zealand which was played in India and his performance was commendable. Unfortunately he picked up an injury during the series and had a ‘swollen forearm’. For the same reason, he was not included in India’s squad for the South Africa tour. However, he has now fully recovered and is ready to take on the West Indies.
Hardik Pandya, on the other hand, has been suffering from the same injury for a long time now. During the India vs Pakistan match in the 2018 Asia Cup, Hardik Pandya injured his back for the first time. He was taken out of the field on a stretcher and he could not play cricket for the next 3 months.
However, he never fully recovered from it. Even though he got a big break during the COVID-19 outbreak, Pandya suffered from frequent spells of injury after the matches resumed and his performances deteriorated drastically as well. In fact, he has been unable to bowl for so many years due to his back injury.
In the T20 World Cup 2021, he made a comeback in the Indian team but again got injured. Although he somehow managed to play the remaining matches, he had to take a long break after the World Cup. After missing the New Zealand and the South Africa series, Hardik Pandya will finally make a comeback in the ODI series against West Indies.
According to PTI, Pandya will return to the national squad either in the West Indies series or in the Sri Lanka series. But many are of the opinion that he has already recovered and can start to return to the team immediately.
When will the India vs West Indies series start?
The ODI series between India and West Indies will start on 6th February. The 3 matches will be played on 6th, 9th and 11th February respectively.
The T20 series will start after that on 16th February. The matches will be played on 16th, 18th and 20th February.
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