The Indian players have started preparing hard for the upcoming limited-overs series against the West Indies which starts this on Sunday (February 6) with the opening ODIs. After witnessing a whitewash in a three-match ODI series in South Africa, India will now have to pull their socks up for the home series as Rohit Sharma will be leading the ODI squad for the first time as a full-time captain in limited-overs cricket.
The Gujarat Cricket Association has already confirmed that the ODI series will be played in front of the empty stands due to the COVID-19 situation. As many as eight members of Team India have tested positive for Covid-19 ahead of the series with Shikhar Dhawan, Shreyas Iyer, Ruturaj Gaikwad, and Navdeep Saini being the affected players.
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As a result, Mayank Agarwal and Ishan Kishan have been added to the ODI squad with two openers contracting the virus. Meanwhile, BCCI, on Friday (February 4), posted images on Twitter of the Indian side making their preparations for the upcoming ODI series.
The likes of Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Shardul Thakur, and Rishabh Pant have covered most part of the images. Kohli will be playing for the first time under Rohit as the captain and the former skipper is due for centuries in the series. He is still waiting for his 71st international century for more than 2 years now.
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Captioning the picture on Twitter, the BCCI wrote: “#TeamIndia begin preps in Ahmedabad ahead of the ODI series against West Indies. #INDvWI.”
#TeamIndia begin preps in Ahmedabad ahead of the ODI series against West Indies.#INDvWI pic.twitter.com/aYTd1QuexB
— BCCI (@BCCI) February 4, 2022
Meanwhile, Deepak Hooda has earned his maiden call up for the Indian ODI squad, however, he is yet to make his international debut despite being part of the Indian T20I squad in the past. Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammad Shami have been rested for the series while Kuldeep Yadav has been recalled to make damage in the middle overs. It will be interesting to see if the Kul-cha pair has still got in them the goods to deliver which might be huge for India ahead of the 2023 World Cup.
