Pant called into ODI group as Karthik is axed

Rishabh Pant has been named as the reserve wicketkeeper in India’s ODI squad to face the West Indies with Virat Kohli returning to lead the group.

Dinesh Karthik has been left out of a squad that is close to a full strength India ODI team though fast bowlers Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Jasprit Bumrah continue their rest after missing the Test series as well.

Axar Patel and Hardik Pandya remain absent through injury and Ravindra Jadeja, who starred at the Asia Cup, has retained his place in the team.

Kedar Jadhav played an unbeaten knock to guide India to the Asia Cup title, though a hamstring injury hampered him in the latter parts of the innings. He has failed to recover sufficiently from that injury, but could be in contention for the latter stages of the series.

Karthik failed to grasp the opportunity to unseat MS Dhoni as first choice keeper. Dhoni has struggled for form in recent months and was underwhelming  at the Asia Cup. Pant appears to be in the frame to take over from Dhoni in the long-term and as  a young player would make a more attractive option than the 33-year-old Karthik. Karthik’s exclusion could spell the end of his hopes of participation at next year’s Cricket World Cup.

Squad: Virat Kohli (c), Rohit Sharma (vc), Shikhar Dhawan, Ambati Rayudu, Manish Pandey, MS Dhoni (wk), Rishabh Pant, Ravindra Jadeja, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Shami, Khaleel Ahmed, Shardul Thakur, KL Rahul

 

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