India captain Rohit Sharma, wicketkeeper-batters Rishabh Pant and Dinesh Karthik landed in Trinidad and Tobago in the early hours of Tuesday to join the rest of the Indian squad for the five-match T20I series against West Indies starting July 29. Rohit, Pant and Karthik shared the same photograph on their Instagram handle to tell the fans about their whereabouts. In the photo, the three Indian cricketers can be seen in the lobby of the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Trinidad and Tobago. While Rohit and Pant uploaded the photo on Instagram with near-similar captions, Karthik uploaded the same on his Instagram story. Pant had earlier shared an in-flight photo with Rohit and Karthik on his Instagram story.
Rohit, Pant, Karthik and other top stars like Virat Kohli, Jasprit Bumrah, Hardik Pandya, and Bhuvneshwar Kumar were rested from ODI leg of the West Indies series. But barring Kohli and Bumrah, all others are set to join the side for the T20Is, which will act as a preparation for the T20 World Cup in Australia later this year.
Ravichandran Ashwin, Kuldeep Yadav, Harshal Patel are also set to join the Indian team for the T20I series. Vice-captain KL Rahul, who tested positive for Covid-19 a few days earlier might have to wait for a few more days to travel to the Caribbean islands.
India have already taken an unassailable 2-0 lead in the three-match ODI series under Shikhar Dhawan’s captaincy. The left-hander, who is not a part of the T20I squad, will leave for India after the third ODI on Wednesday. The likes of Shubman Gill, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Sanju Samson Shardul Thakur and Prasidh Krishna will also return home after the ODI series.
The first T20I will be played in Trinidad, followed by two matches in Saint Kitts. Then both teams will travel to Florida for the final two matches of the series.
India’s squad for 5 T20Is: Rohit Sharma (Captain), Ishan Kishan, KL Rahul, Suryakumar Yadav, Deepak Hooda, Shreyas Iyer, Dinesh Karthik, Rishabh Pant, Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, R Ashwin, Ravi Bishnoi, Kuldeep Yadav, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Avesh Khan, Harshal Patel, Arshdeep Singh.
