Srinagar: Former India All-Rounder Irfan Pathan has hit out at selectors for resting senior players Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma for upcoming West Indies ODI series.
India selection committee named a 16-man squad for the ODI series against West Indies that starts from July 22. Shikhar Dhawan has been named the captain of the ODI squad while Ravindra Jadeja has been named the vice-captain of the squad. Sharma, Kohli and Jasprit Bumrah has been rested.
India will play a 3-match ODI series from July 22 to July 27 in Trinidad, 5 days after the completion of the white-ball series against England, scheduled from July 7 to 17.
Now former India pacer Irfan Pathan took to social media to take a dig at the selection policy, saying players won’t return to form if they are being rested.
“No one comes back to form while resting” Pathan said in a tweet.
Pathan’s comments come even as Virat Kohli is struggling for form across all formats of the game. The former India captain, who had an ordinary Indian Premier League season, struggled to make a significant impact in the Birmingham Test as he got out for 11 and 20 across the 2 innings as India slipped to a 7-wicket defeat.
Notably, India will play a 5-match T20I series against the West Indies, for which the star players are expected to return, considering the build-up for the T20I series.
India squad for West Indies ODIs
Shikhar Dhawan (Captain), Ruturaj Gaikwad, Shubman Gill, Deepak Hooda, Suryakumar Yadav, Shreyas Iyer, Ishan Kishan (wk), Sanju Samson (wk), Ravindra Jadeja (vice-captain), Shardul Thakur, Yuzvendra Chahal, Axar Patel, Avesh Khan, Prasidh Krishna, Mohd Siraj, Arshdeep Singh.