The selectors announced the Indian cricket team for the tour of Zimbabwe and the West Indies on Monday.
The national team is scheduled to play a series consisting of three One Day Internationals and three T20 Internationals against Zimbabwe, beginning on June 11.
Team India will then travel to the Caribbean for a four-Test series in July-August.
The Indian squad for Zimbabwe includes M S Dhoni (Captain), K L Rahul, Faiz Faisal, Manish Pandey, Karun Nair, Ambatti Rayudu, Rishi Dhawan, Axar Patel, Jayant Yadav, Dhawal Kulkarni, Jaspreet Bumrah, Barinder Sran, Mandeep Singh, Kedar Jadhav, Jaidev Unadkat and Yuzvendra Chahal.
Note: Virat Kohli has been rested for the Zimbabwe tour.
The Test squad for West Indies will be led by Virat Kohli (Captain) and includes Murali Vijay, Shikhar Dhawan, K L Rahul, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane (Vice Captain), Rohit Sharma, Wriddhiman Saha, Ravichandran Ashwin, Amit Mishra, Ravindra Jadeja, Ishant Sharma, Mohammad Shami, Bhuvaneshwar Kumar, Umesh Yadav, Shardul Thakur and Stuart Binny.
Team to travel to Zimbabwe without a coach
The Indian Express reported earlier that as the Board of Control for Cricket in India has not zeroed in on a suitable coach for the national team, they have decided to advertise for the post. Hence, the board has invited applications for the posts of chief coach and assistant coaches with a June 10 deadline.
When asked about the delay in appointing coaches, newly-appointed board president Anurag Thakur stated, “If you have to go for the best you can’t go with limited choices. So we are keeping it open. We want people who are interested to come. They can come forward, apply for the post and then we can look at the proposals, who the applicants are and who could be the best for the BCCI.” He also informed that the board will announce the support staff contingent for the Zimbabwe tour next month after May 29.
He, though, was non-committal about the future of Ravi Shastri, the team director, and his support crew of Bharat Arun, Sanjay Bangar and N Sridhar, who have been overseeing the team after Duncan Fletcher’s departure until the T20 World Cup. “Let the applications come first. Once we see how many people are interested in taking up the job, what is the talent available and who could be the best coach for the team then you can take the final decision.” All the same, the aforementioned coaches too are eligible to apply for the respective jobs.
However, the Cricket Advisory Committee, comprising Sourav Ganguly, Sachin Tendulkar and VVS Laxman, hadn’t met in the past few months. Ganguly, who attended the BCCI’s SGM as Cricket Association of Bengal’s representative, later said that the new coach’s appointment will take a few more months. “It will happen in the next couple of months. I am not too sure if it happens before the Zimbabwe tour because it is not too far away,” said Ganguly.
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