Team India has been announced for the Test and ODI series between India and West Indies. Rohit Sharma will be seen leading the team in both formats. While Ajinkya Rahane will play the role of vice-captain in the Test team and Hardik Pandya in the ODI team. The Indian team will play two Tests, three ODIs, and five T20s on the Windies tour. With this tour, India's next World Test Championship 2023-2025 cycle will also begin.

Cheteshwar Pujara has not been selected for the Test team due to his poor performance in the World Test Championship final. Pujara has scored 1769 runs in 35 innings of Tests since February 2019 at an average of 29.98, including one century. However, former batsman Sunil Gavaskar believes that Pujara is only being made a scapegoat. You can't judge someone's ability from one match's performance, he can still contribute a lot in a Test match.

Gavaskar said "Why has he been dropped, why is he being made a scapegoat for the failure of other batsmen? He is an honest and peace-loving player of Indian cricket, a loyal and successful player, but the only difference is That he doesn't have lakhs and crores of supporters like other players who shout or raise their voices for him when he is dropped from the team, that's why you have dropped him. This is beyond my understanding. On what grounds he has been dropped and On what basis the rest of the players, who did not perform, have been kept? I don't know because nowadays there is no interaction with the media by the chairman of selectors."

Sunil Gavaskar believes that Cheteshwar Pujara cannot be dropped from the team only based on his age. Gavaskar also said that Pujara was not the only player who did not perform in the World Test Championship final. In the first innings, India's top four batsmen returned to the pavilion at a score of just 71. Even though Pujara scored 14 and 27 in both innings, he was the only player who struggled there. Ajinkya was the only player who crossed the 50-run mark. Gavaskar said "He has been playing county cricket, which means he has played a lot of Test matches and he knows what it is about. Nowadays if players are scoring runs then players can play till the age of 39-40, I think Don't think his age is a factor. Barring Rahane, the entire batting line-up failed, so why blame all the failures on Pujara alone? This has to be clarified by the selectors."

Apart from this, it will also be a matter to be seen how youngsters Rituraj Gaikwad, Yashasvi Jaiswal, and fast bowler Mukesh Kumar perform in Tests. KS Bharat and Ishan Kishan will be India's wicketkeepers in the Test. Mohammed Shami has been rested from both the Test and ODI squads. Spin will depend on Ashwin, Jadeja, and Akshar. At the same time, the responsibility of fast bowling will be on Shardul, Mukesh, Siraj, Unadkat, and Navdeep.

Indian team for test series
Rohit Sharma (captain), Shubman Gill, Rituraj Gaikwad, Virat Kohli, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Ajinkya Rahane (vice-captain), KS Bharat (wicketkeeper), Ishan Kishan (wicketkeeper), Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, Akshar Patel, Mohammad Siraj, Mukesh Kumar, Jaydev Unadkat, Navdeep Saini.

(pc amarujala)