New Delhi (TIP)- Virat Kohli and Jasprit Bumrah were today rested from the five T20Is against West Indies which are to be played in the Caribbean islands and the United States from July 29. Star leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal has also been rested. KL Rahul, who recently underwent a surgery for hernia, and Kuldeep Yadav were picked for the 18-man squad subject to fitness tests. Yadav had suffered a hand injury in the home series against South Africa in June. Ravichandran Ashwin also made a comeback to the squad, having played his last T20I in November last year.

It had earlier been reported that Kohli, who has been struggling to find form and hasn’t scored a century since November 2019, had asked for rest from the entire white-ball tour of the West Indies, which comprises three ODIs and five T20Is. The tour begins on July 22.

Skipper Rohit Sharma, Rishabh Pant and Hardik Pandya, who will not be part of the preceding ODI series, will return for the T20Is. Shikhar Dhawan will captain in the ODIs. Left-arm pacer Arshdeep Singh, who was not part of the full-strength squad against England in the final two T20Is, is back in the mix.

The first T20I will be played in Trinidad on July 29, followed by a couple of games in St Kitts before the action moves to the US with two games in Lauderhill, Florida.

Squad

Rohit Sharma (captain), Ishan Kishan, KL Rahul, Suryakumar Yadav, Deepak Hooda, Shreyas Iyer, Dinesh Karthik, Rishabh Pant, Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravi Bishnoi, Kuldeep Yadav, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Avesh Khan, Harshal Patel, Arshdeep Singh.