Rishabh Pant and Hardik Pandya in focus as India's selectors pick the West Indies squads

India's selectors meet in New Delhi on Wednesday to name ODI and T20I squads for the West Indies series, with much of the country's first-choice white-ball group already committed to the Asian Games in Japan

The senior men's selection committee, chaired by Ajit Agarkar, sits in the capital to pick sides for a home tour of three ODIs and five T20Is, with the squads expected to be announced later in the day.

The one-day series begins in Thiruvananthapuram on 27 September and moves to Guwahati and Mullanpur, before the T20I leg opens in Lucknow on 6 October and finishes in Bengaluru on 17 October. The tour carries no Test cricket.

The panel's problem is one of arithmetic. India are sending a full-strength T20 squad to the Asian Games, and the men's tournament in Nisshin starts on 24 September, three days before the first one-dayer.

A squad picked around Japan

Jasprit Bumrah, Axar Patel, Ishan Kishan, Nitish Kumar Reddy and the Asian Games captain Shreyas Iyer are all unavailable for the one-day matches as a result.

Iyer is India's regular ODI vice-captain, and reports before the meeting suggested KL Rahul would take that role alongside captain Shubman Gill, who succeeded Rohit Sharma in the one-day job last year.

Ruturaj Gaikwad is expected to bat at No. 4 in Iyer's absence, with Yashasvi Jaiswal and Rajat Patidar among the reserve batting options.

The T20I squad is a simpler exercise. The Asian Games finish in the first days of October, which leaves the players in Japan free for a series starting on 6 October.

Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli, who have retired from Tests and T20 internationals and are building towards the 2027 World Cup, are expected to be named for their first international cricket since India's tour of England.

The wicketkeeping call

Rahul is the incumbent ODI wicketkeeper, which leaves one reserve glove to be argued over.

Rishabh Pant, who lost his white-ball place and the Test vice-captaincy after a lean IPL season, is in contention for it with Kishan away in Japan.

If the selectors look elsewhere, Dhruv Jurel is the alternative, having kept in India's most recent squads.

Waiting on Hardik Pandya

Hardik Pandya has not played since injury and is due back in competitive cricket on 20 September, in India A's one-day series against Australia A.

That gives the committee a week of evidence at most before the Thiruvananthapuram match, and the question is whether he can bowl ten overs and field for fifty on his return.

India's seam-bowling all-round stocks are thin behind him: Nitish Kumar Reddy is at the Asian Games, while Suryansh Shedge and Venkatesh Iyer are among the players rehabilitating at the BCCI's Centre of Excellence.

Siraj back in a reshuffled attack

Mohammed Siraj returns to consideration after being rested for the England series, and takes on more of the load with Bumrah unavailable.

Prasidh Krishna, Prince Yadav and Gurnoor Brar are expected to keep their places from the last one-day squad, while Mohammed Shami and Yuzvendra Chahal are not thought to be in the panel's thinking.

Ravindra Jadeja is in line for a recall after missing the England one-dayers, with Axar at the Asian Games and the left-arm spinner Harsh Dubey injured during the Duleep Trophy.

Agarkar's own position on the agenda

Agarkar's term as chairman of the senior men's selection committee expires within weeks, and board officials are expected to discuss an extension with him around the meeting.

Reports have put an extension running through to the 2027 ODI World Cup on the table, with BCCI secretary Devajit Saikia among those involved in the conversation.

Agarkar has chaired the panel since 2023, a period that has taken in a T20 World Cup triumph and the handover of the Test and one-day captaincy to Gill.

India open the one-day series against West Indies at the Greenfield International Stadium in Thiruvananthapuram on 27 September.

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