Yashasvi Jaiswal, Tilak Varma get maiden T20I call as India announce squad for West Indies tour

India have announced their T20I squad for the upcoming tour of the West Indies, with Yashasvi Jaiswal and Tilak Varma getting their maiden call-ups. The batters, both of whom had a stellar IPL 2023, have been named in the 15-member squad led by Hardik Pandya. India will be playing five T20Is, starting from August 3.

Suryakumar Yadav has been named Pandya's deputy in a squad from which names like Rohit Sharma, India's regular skipper and Virat Kohli, the former skipper, have been missing. Notably, Rohit and Kohli have not played for India in T20Is since the 2022 World Cup exit.

This is also the first squad chosen by India's newly elected selection panel of which Ajit Agarkar has been named the head. The new panel seems to have acknowledged the need to move on from the conservative batting approach with the selection of young explosive batsmen.

Talking about Jaiswal's IPL performance, he had a stellar IPL last season, as he scored 625 runs in 14 games at a strike rate of 163 with one hundred and five fifties for Rajasthan Royals. Overall, he has scored 1,172 runs in 37 IPL games at a healthy strike rate of 148.73 and an average of 32 since making his debut in 2020.

Varma, on the other hand, has been a force for Mumbai Indians in the middle overs since making his debut in 2022. The left-hand batsman has scored 740 runs in his two IPL seasons at an average of around 39 and a strike rate of 144.53. Varma scored397 runs in his maiden IPL season at a strike rate of 131 but, took it to the next level in the last season, hitting 343 runs at 164 and an average of almost 43.

India T20I squad: Ishan Kishan (wk), Shubman Gill, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Tilak Varma, Suryakumar Yadav (vice-capt), Sanju Samson (wk), Hardik Pandya (capt), Axar Patel, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Ravi Bishnoi, Arshdeep Singh, Umran Malik, Avesh Khan, Mukesh Kumar.

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