Rohit-led Indian team arrives in Kolkata for T20 series

In the backdrop of Mahendra Singh Dhoni being dropped from the Twenty20 series against the West Indies and Australia, the Indian team led by Rohit Sharma arrived in the city on Friday morning ahead of their opener at the Eden Gardens here two days later.

According to regular captain Virat Kohli, who has also been rested for this series, Dhoni decided not to play as he wanted to make way for promising rookie Rishabh Pant.

But talk is that the former India captain, who led India to their maiden and only T20 World Cup win in 2007, is being phased out owing to his poor run since the turn of the year.

The 37-year-old veteran, who also led India to 50-over World cup glory in 2011, has eked out only 245 runs at 27.22 in 17 matches in 2018 so far.

Only Shoaib Malik and Shahid Afridi have appeared in more T20 international matches than Dhoni.

The team, meanwhile, arrived together with the Windies after pocketing the five-match One Day series 3-1. The second ODI was a tie.

In the fifth rubber at Thiruvananthapuram, Kohli and his men pummelled their hapless rivals by nine wickets, bundling them out for a paltry 104 and then reaching the target inside 15 overs.

Rohit, who recently led India to the Asia Cup title, will lead the side once again looking to whitewash the West Indies across formats. In the Tests, India won 2-0.

India chose to stay indoors with skipper Rohit attending the Jagmohan Dalmiya Annual Conclave (Chapter II).

For the Windies, dashing all-rounder Andre Russell missed the flight to Kolkata and is expected to arrive later on Friday.

The Carlos Brathwaite-led side practiced with seven players selected for T20s on Thursday and Friday.

T20 stalwart Kieron Pollard also sweated it out along with Darren Bravo, Khary Pierre, Nicholas Pooran, Denesh Ramdin and Sherfane Rutherford.

The squads:

India: Rohit Sharma (captain), Shikhar, KL Rahul, Dinesh Karthik, Manish Pandey, Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant, Krunal Pandya, Washington Sundar, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Bumrah, Khaleel Ahmed, Umesh Yadav, Shahbaz Nadeem

West Indies: Carlos Brathwaite (captain), Fabian Allen, Darren Bravo, Shimron Hetmyer, Evin Lewis, Obed McCoy, Keemo Paul, Khary Pierre, Kieron Pollard, Rovman Powell, Denesh Ramdin, Andre Russell, Sherfane Rutherford, Oshane Thomas

--IANS

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