The BCCI has put to rest speculations that Virat Kohli would not be attending a press conference on Monday prior to the Indian team's tour of the West Indies. In a press release, the BCCI has stated that Kohli would address the pre-departure press conference at 6:00 pm IST on Monday, in Mumbai.
ANI had earlier reported that Kohli would not be attending the press conference, prompting speculation that this was because he wanted to avoid fielding questions on the alleged rift between him and vice-captain Rohit Sharma.
Earlier, the Committee of Administrators (CoA) had stated that there was no such rift between Kohli and Sharma. But, speculation rose after Sharma unfollowed Kohli's wife, Anushka Sharma, on Instagram. Anushka, in turn, uploaded a cryptic Instagram story saying, "A wise man once said nothing. Only truth can shake hands with silence in a mess of false appearances."
India are set to play West Indies in all three formats, with three T20s scheduled on August 3, 4 and 6, followed by three ODIs on August 8, 11, and 14 and two tests on August 22 and September 3 respectively. Two of the T20 matches will be played in the United States in Florida, while the remaining matches will be held in the West Indies.
Virat Kohli will lead the Indian team in all formats. Shikhar Dhawan will return to the squad, following his recovery from a thumb fracture. Also returning from injury is Wriddhiman Saha, who has not played since January of 2018, following a shoulder surgery undertaken to heal an injury he sustained in the 2018 IPL. Mahendra Singh Dhoni will not be playing as he has joined the Territorial Army for three months. Rahul Chahar will be the only new face in the squad. Hardik Pandya and Jasprit Bumrah will be rested, though Bumrah will be playing in the test matches.
Here are the squads for T20s, ODIs and test matches below:
T20Is: Virat Kohli (captain), Rohit Sharma (vice captain), Shikhar Dhawan, K.L. Rahul, Shreyas Iyer, Manish Pandey, Rishabh Pant (wk), Krunal Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Washington Sundar, Rahul Chahar, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Khaleel Ahmed, Deepak Chahar, Navdeep Saini
ODIs: Virat Kohli (captain), Rohit Sharma (vice captain), Shikhar Dhawan, K.L. Rahul, Shreyas Iyer, Manish Pandey, Rishabh Pant (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kedar Jadhav, Mohammed Shami, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Khaleel Ahmed, Navdeep Saini
Tests: Virat Kohli (captain), Ajinkya Rahane (vice captain), Mayank Agarwal, K.L. Rahul, C. Pujara, Hanuma Vihari, Rohit Sharma, Rishabh Pant (wk) Wriddhiman Saha (wk), R. Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Ishant Sharma, Mohammed Shami, Jasprit Bumrah, Umesh Yadav.
