The Indian team was announced on Wednesday (September 16) for the upcoming ODI series against West Indies. The selection committee headed by Ajit Agarkar has kept faith in senior batsmen like Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli. Experienced all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja has returned to the ODI team after a long time. This series between India and West Indies will run simultaneously with the Asian Games. Therefore, Rituraj Gaikwad and Dhruv Jurel have got a chance in place of T20 team captain Shreyas Iyer and Ishan Kishan.
The India-West Indies series will run from 27 September to 3 October. The matches will be played in Thiruvananthapuram, Guwahati and New Chandigarh. Shreyas and Ishaan will be seen in action in the Asiad. In such a situation, Rituraj and Jurel have been included to fill their places in the ODI team. Aaqib Nabi and Naman Dheer are the new faces in the team. Both have got a place in the ODI team for the first time. Let us know how the entry of Aaqib and Naman Dheer happened.
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Naman Dheer will be the middle order reserve batsman.
Right-handed batsman Naman Dheer recently created a stir in the Sher-e-Punjab League. He made Amritsar Surmaaz the champion by scoring 655 runs in 10 matches at an astonishing strike rate of 217.61. He was the highest run scorer in this league of Punjab. His best score was 173.
26 year old Naman Dheer has been selected as a middle order reserve batsman in the Indian ODI team. In the absence of Shreyas, Rituraj will be seen playing at number-4. It will be important to see whether Naman Dheer gets a chance to make his international debut or not. He can also bowl some overs with off-spin bowling. He has 7 wickets in his name in List-A. He has also got a chance in India-A team for the ODI series against Australia-A.
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How did Aaqib Nabi get a chance?
Jammu and Kashmir fast bowler Aaqib Nabi was included in the Indian team for the Test series against Sri Lanka but he did not get a chance to debut. Now he has been given a place in the ODI team. Jasprit Bumrah will be busy in the Asian Games. In such a situation, Aaqib Nabi has been called to strengthen the fast bowling department. Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna and Gurnoor Brar are the other fast bowlers included in the ODI squad.
It is worth noting that Hardik Pandya is injured. To fill his place, pace bowling all-rounder Nitish Kumar Reddy has been removed from the Asian Games team and included in the ODI team. However, Nitish has not been able to win the trust of the team management till now. If he fails then Aaqib can be tried as an all-rounder. He is a useful lower order batsman. He has scored 572 runs in 30 innings in List-A cricket at a strike rate of 111.71, which also includes an unbeaten inning of 114 runs.
Indian team for ODI series against West Indies: Shubman Gill (captain), Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Ruturaj Gaikwad, KL Rahul (vice-captain), Dhruv Jurel (wicketkeeper), Nitish Kumar Reddy, Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Prasidh Krishna, Gurnoor Brar, Mohammed Siraj, Auqib Nabi, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Naman Dheer.