After falling short in the World Test Championship final last month, Team India will make a full comeback with a series against the West Indies. The West Indies will be the opponents for India in two Tests, three one-day internationals, and three Twenty20 internationals. The teams for each series have already been revealed.
Before the ODI and T20I series, India’s tour of the West Indies will start with the Test series. The selectors once again passed over seasoned talents like Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma for the T20I team, providing yet another signal that the players are unlikely to be included in the squad for the T20 World Cup in 2019.
Along with several players who urgently need to establish themselves, the team was named by the Ajit Agarkar-led selection committee. The five-match series versus the West Indies will provide the players with a fantastic opportunity to win over the team’s selectors and secure their spots. We are examining three players to keep an eye out for in the forthcoming series before it starts.
3 players to watch out for in India’s T20I series against the West Indies:
1. Umran Malik
This year’s Indian Premier League (IPL) saw Umran Malik perform poorly. Last year, when he took 22 wickets in 14 games, including a five-wicket haul, the speedster was one of Sunrisers Hyderabad’s top bowlers in the IPL. Umran stood out from the competition with his incredible speed.
His first call-up to India was also made possible by his performance. But a year after shocking the world with his IPL performance, the right-arm bowler from Jammu and Kashmir fell short of everyone’s expectations. He didn’t even receive a regular opportunity to play in the starting eleven because of how well he performed in the IPL 2023.
In total, Umran participated in eight games but only managed to take five wickets, with an average and economy rate of 43.3 and 10.8, respectively. He will get a lot of attention because he was selected for the India T20I squad and because his detractors will be watching him closely. Umran would like to make up for his poor performance against the West Indies.
2. Tilak Varma
For the upcoming series, Tilak Varma has received his first call-up from the Indian team. Many consider the highly regarded batter to be one of India’s future stars, and he will get the chance to do so in the upcoming days. In the starting eleven against the West Indies, Varma is set to receive regular playing time.
The left-handed batsman was selected after routinely outperforming the competition in both domestic and international cricket. Varma had a strike rate above 164 and scored 343 runs in the IPL in 2023. In the IPL the previous year, he also performed well. Varma scored 397 runs while playing for the Mumbai Indians on his debut, thanks to two fifty-sixes.
Varma is capable of making big plays at any point in the game. India has been looking for a trustworthy middle-order batsman for a while, and Varma has the chance to claim the position as his own. His already impressive reputation will grow even more spectacular if he wins the match against the West Indies.
3. Yashasvi Jaiswal
It is not necessary to introduce Yashasvi Jaiswal. In India, he is already well-known thanks to his remarkable ascent from obscurity to success in the game. Jaiswal is not a fresh face in Indian cricket. Since he first began playing age-level cricket, he has been taking up all the attention for the right reasons.
Jaiswal dominated domestic cricket before having a breakout IPL season in 2023 after competing in the U19 World Cup in 2020, where he won the Man of the Series award for accumulating the most runs. The left-handed hitter had a standout IPL 2023 season, scoring 625 runs in 14 games on the strength of a century and five half-centuries.
Before receiving his first Test and T20I call-ups for the current tour of the West Indies, he was selected as a backup opener for the World Test Championship final shortly after the IPL came to a conclusion. Since Rohit is no longer a member of the T20I team, India is in need of a dependable opener, and Jaiswal has the chance to secure his place in the squad.
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