Sanju Samson replaces KL Rahul for West Indies T20 series

Trinidad: The All-India Senior Selection Committee on Friday named wicket-keeper batsman Sanju Samson as a replacement for KL Rahul in the T20I squad for the ongoing West Indies series.

Rahul was earlier named in the squad and his participation in the T20I series was subject to fitness.

The batsman tested positive for COVID-19 last week and has been advised rest by the BCCI medical team.

Samson was part of the squad in the recently-concluded ODI series that the team won 3-0.

However, it remains to be seen whether the Kerala lad would get into the Playing XI with likes of other wicketkeeper batsmen like Ishan Kishan, Rishabh Pant and Dinesh Karthik.

The touring Indian side have already swept a three-match ODI series clean against the West Indies with the help of sterling display by Shubhnam Gill, Mohammad Siraj, Shardul Thakur, Yuzvendra Chahal and others.

First two ODIs were closely contested where India came up trumps, but the third and final ODI was a cakewalk for visitors.

Squad: Rohit Sharma (Captain), Ishan Kishan, Sanju Samson, Suryakumar Yadav, Deepak Hooda, Shreyas Iyer, Dinesh Karthik, Rishabh Pant, Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, R Ashwin, Ravi Bishnoi, Kuldeep Yadav, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Avesh Khan, Harshal Patel, Arshdeep Singh. (UNI)