(Cricket news) After a disappointing whitewash against South Africa, India will now face West Indies in a 3 match ODI series. BCCI have named the 18-man squad for the series with major changes. All 3 matches will be played at the Narendra Modi stadium in Ahmedabad.  

Squad:

Rohit Sharma (C), KL Rahul (VC), Ruturaj Gaikwad, Shikhar Dhawan, Virat Kohli, Surya Kumar Yadav, Shreyas Iyer, Deepak Hooda, Rishabh Pant (WK), Deepak Chahar, Shardul Thakur, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Washington Sundar, Ravi Bishnoi, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, Avesh Khan.

This will be Rohit Sharma's first ODI series as the permanent captain. Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Shami have been rested to manage their workload. Ravindra Jadeja is unavailable due to injury, so is Axar Patel who will be back for the T20s. KL Rahul is unavailable for the 1st ODI but will be back for the 2nd. There has been a big overhaul to the squad that lost 3-0 against South Africa.

Ravichandran Ashwin and Bhuvneshwar Kumar are the obvious candidates to be dropped after a disappointing outing in South Africa. Jayant Yadav and Navdeep Saini who were injury replacements in South Africa have been dropped straight away. Ishan Kishan, who wasn't given a chance to play in South Africa has been dropped while Ruturaj Gaikwad, who is yet to make his debut finds a place in the team but is dropped from the T20Is.

Surprisingly Venkatesh Iyer hasn't been backed and is dropped. He was poor with the bat in the two games he played against South Africa and got to bowl only in the 2nd match. After playing just two ODIs, the Indian side looks to have moved on from Iyer or it could just be a temporary thing to try something different. The good news for Iyer is that he is a part of the T20I squad.

Washington Sundar, who missed the South Africa series due to Covid is back in the squad. Kuldeep Yadav is back in the ODI squad straight away after recovering from his knee injury. Avesh Khan, Deepak Hooda and Ravi Bishnoi earn their maiden ODI call-ups. Despite rumors, Rishi Dhawan is not in the squad. Dhawan was the 2nd highest run scorer and the 2nd highest wicket taker in the recently concluded Vijay Hazare trophy. He was also the captain of the eventual winners Himachal Pradesh. His selection would have made perfect sense as he is a proper fast bowling all rounder which India is missing. 

There are some very bold decisions in the squad which were needed considering the poor performance in South Africa. The series could see the return of spin twins Kul-Cha (Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal) at least for the time being.  

Also read: Big calls in India's T20I squad for West Indies series